TIm Wakefield Tosses a Gem for the Red Sox as They Head to Cleveland

See what happens?

I merely mention that the Red Sox are on a seven-game winning streak and have moved ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, and they drop their middle game against the Cubs. The Yankees, in the meantime, take the opportunity to defeat the Mets twice, while the club on-deck (Cleveland) completes a three-game sweep of the Reds with a 12-run, 13-hit performance that leaves them with the best home and overall record in baseball.

                On a more positive note, 44-year-old knuckle-baller Tim Wakefield took the mound in the series finale against the Cubs, and pitched a single run, five-hit gem that put him six shy of 200 career wins and 12 shy of a club record, shared, for the moment, by Cy Young and Roger Clemens (192).  

So, of course, Wakefield won’t be among the starters for the three games in Cleveland, although as a knuckle-baller, throwing pitches that look as though they’re candidates for T-Ball, he could probably start tonight (Monday).

                What is it about those pitches?

You watch them as they’re floating in toward the plate and find it hard to imagine that a professional hitter isn’t going to park the ball in Kenmore Square somewhere (about 300 yards away from Fenway Park).  Not only do these balls not get hit, the batters who try, end up looking foolish.

There’s something remotely majestic about mighty swings that fail to make contact with a 98-mile-an-hour fastball from the likes of Jonathan Papelbon.

Watching a batter corkscrew himself into the batter’s box, trying to make contact with a Wakefield knuckleball that just refuses to stand still for him is amusing. Unless, of course, you’re the batter, skulking back to the dugout, wondering whether you should have taken up plumbing.

The last time the Sox went to Cleveland, they (the Sox) managed a grand total of five runs over three games that completed a double-sweep, season opening, six-game losing streak with an aggregate score of 38-16. 

Cleveland has lost only four games at home this season; two against the White Sox on their opening weekend, and two against the Rays earlier in May.

The Sox are throwing their front-line starters at the Tribe; Buchholz, Beckett and Lester. The Tribe is due to respond with Justin Masterson, Fausto Carmona and a third pitcher who’s yet to be named.

Masterson started the season 5-0, but hasn’t won a game since. Were it not for the Chicago White Sox, Carmona would start Tuesday’s game with a 3-2 record and an ERA of 2.56. Against the White Sox, though, he’s 0-2 with an ERA of 20.25.

Here’s hoping that there’s something about the idea of "Sox" that bothers him.

Oops, sorry, let a little note of potential optimism slip in there. Let’s try this.

The Red Sox are bound to lose against the hottest team in baseball right now. Boston batters couldn’t hit a bull in the fanny with a bag of rice, and the team arrives in Cleveland on the heels of an amazing single-game winning streak.

That ought to do it. . .