Knuckleballer flattened by awakened Yanks

Two tall-jacks and a triple did in Tim Wakefield (4-5) and the Boston Red Sox (30-14) losing the first of the three game series to the New York Yankees (20-23) by a score of 6-2.
Chien-Ming Wang (3-3) picked up the win in the contest going six and one-third’s innings, with two earned runs, three walks, seven hits, and five strikeouts.
Wakefield who struggled through his whole outing only went five innings, on nine hits, six earned runs, with five walks, and two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the first with Johnny Damon on second, Alex Rodriguez launched his 18th homerun off of Wakefield into left field making it 2-0.
The Red Sox lineup, that has been red hot of late, was simply stymied by Wang. The Sox hitters’ left a total of 12 runners left on base in the game including a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the second that Kevin Youkilis struck out swinging to end the inning.
Wakefield did not help his cause in the bottom of the second giving up another homerun to Jason Giambi and an RBI single to Derek Jeter which scored Robinson Cano.
Yankees’ ace Wang continued to cruise through his outing until the fifth inning giving up a run on an David Ortiz RBI double that plated Youkilis.
Another two spot was thrown up on the scoreboard by the Yankees offense on a Cano triple that landed in deep center field. The triple by Cano scored Bobby Abreu and Giambi bringing the game to a 6-1 score.
Cano’s three bagger would virtually end Wakefield’s night that surprisingly lead to the only bright spot for the Red Sox in the game.
Sox relievers J.C. Romero (7th), Manny Delcarmen (8th), and Joel Pineiro (9th) all threw scoreless innings halting the Yankees to only six runs in the game.
Boston did scratch together one more run in the top of the seventh on a Ortiz sacrifice fly that scored shortstop Julio Lugo off of Yankees relief pitcher Mike Myers who gave up the inherited Wang runner.
The Sox look to rebound after the game one loss to the Yankees tomorrow by sending Julian Tavarez to the mound against Mike Mussina.
Game start is at 7:05 p.m. in the Bronx.