Wakefield steps up: Knuckler takes one for the team

[Bigben 0548]

Wakefield steps up: Knuckler takes one for the team
By Tony Massarotti
April 28, 2004

They know a good thing when they see it, and they are smart enough now to know they have a good thing. And so from their manager and starting pitcher on down last night, the Red Sox [stats, schedule] made decisions based on what will be best for them - for all of them - during this all-important summer of 2004.

For the third time in their last eight home games, the Red Sox were rained out last night on the supersaturated soil at a dampened Fenway Park. All three Sox rainouts have come after open dates on the schedule, leaving manager Terry Francona to play what has become a never-ending game of musical chairs with his starting rotation.

Last time, Derek Lowe [stats, news] ended up without a seat.

This time, it is Tim Wakefield [stats, news].

``I was in there discussing (the decision) with them and I volunteered,'' Wakefield said of his post-rainout talk with Francona and general manager Theo Epstein. ``I said to just skip me. There's no sense messing up the rotation now. It's working for everybody, so let's not mess with it. I don't have a problem being skipped. I don't have anything to prove.''

There was a time when Wakefield did not necessarily feel this way, a time when Joe Kerrigan was the pitching coach, a time when Wakefield felt he had become, in his words, ``a mop-up man.'' He felt the Red Sox (and Kerrigan, in particular) unfairly and unnecessarily exploited his versatility and flexibility.

No one minds making a sacrifice now and then. But no one should ever expect you to, either.

Last night, from Wakefield, no one had a right to expect this and no one had a right to ask. In three starts thus far this season, Wakefield is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA, the lowest ERA among the five Sox starters. He is the only Sox starter without a loss. Opponents are batting a measly .191 against him, also best among the five starting pitchers.

Yet the best thing right now is for the Red Sox to skip Wakefield's turn, keeping what has been a vaunted Sox pitching staff as unaffected as possible. That means Wakefield is not likely to start a game again until Sunday. And while Wakefield will likely pitch in relief in the first game of tomorrow's rescheduled doubleheader, he will end up with the same 10 days between starts that Lowe had to deal with earlier this year.

Said Francona: ``This works out to be what's best for our ballclub.''

What works best for the Sox, too, is to play this game now. Thanks to two rainouts against the Orioles earlier this month, the Sox now will be forced to play on Memorial Day (previously a travel day to the West Coast) in addition to a doubleheader in July. Nothing can kill a team during the summer like lost vacation days and too many doubleheaders, so the Sox quickly voted to play tomorrow.

``It's always nice to get it out of the way,'' catcher Jason Varitek [stats, news] said of makeup games. ``A couple (of doubleheaders) are nice, but too many is too many.''

Said Wakefield: ``You don't want doubleheaders piling up late in the year and we've got 12 pitchers right now.''

Four years ago, during the summer of 2000, the Sox went through a similar April stretch during which an entire three-game series against the Cleveland Indians [stats, schedule] was rained out. The Sox were forced to make up two of those games as doubleheaders in what proved to be a pivotal five-game series in September, a series that eventually eliminated the Sox from playoff contention.

These Sox? They own a 12-6 record despite playing without two of their superstars. They could have made short-term decisions or long-term ones, and they chose the latter. Collectively, they decided that it is better to disrupt one man than to disrupt 25.

When it comes to rainouts, you can pay now or pay later.