I left work early in order to catch the afternoon game against the A's today and what a game it was. Tim Wakefield took a no hitter into the 8th inning, saving our bullpen which was greatly needed, and took the win 8-2. I don't know what to think about Wakefield. There are days when I can't stand to watch a single pitch because he is walking every batter in sight, the catcher is running around trying to stop the knuckler from rolling to the backstop, and hitters are peppering the wall with every pitch that does land in the strike zone. And then there are days like today. One where he is almost perfect.
He knew going into the game he had to stay in past at least 6 or 7 innings to save our bullpen because of them pitching 11 innings the night before. I sat down and quickly saw Lowell hit a two run home run in the second to put us up 2-0. Then, slowly, Wakefield was like a machine going through their lineup. It was going into the 4th inning when I realized that he had the no-no going and this time I was not going to blow it for him. In the past, I have been known to blow the no hitter for the Sox pitchers by calling everyone I know about the game, and usually, by the time I hang up the phone, they give up the base hit and the no-no is gone. I did that for Schilling 2 years ago and I know it was my fault he didn't get the no hitter. So this time I refused to say a single word about it, not even to my kids who were watching the game with me.
In my mind, I kept thinking, "This is going to happen." Usually, with any no hitter, you can point to several key defensive plays that kept the no hitter alive and in this game the first one was the off-target throw by shortstop Nick Green that was handled by Youkilis, who tagged Mark Ellis, in the second inning. Then there was the warning track catch by Ellsbury in right-center in the sixth. After that catch, I just knew Timmy had the no hitter going. Then in the seventh, I saw a defensive play that confirmed the fact I was going to see a no hitter. There was that brilliant leaping, twisting, tumbling play behind second base by Green which prompted Wakefield to raise his arms and point to the Sox shortstop. He was smiling and pointing and down deep I knew it was going to happen and I was not going to say anything about the no hitter to anyone until the game was over.
Then I blew it. I knew the score going into the top of the 8th was still just 2-0 so I opened my mouth and knowing not to say anything about the no-hitter said, "It sure would be nice if we could get just a couple of runs." And sure enough, we batted around and scored 6 runs to take a 8-0 lead. The bad thing was, it took us nearly 30 minutes to score the runs and throughout the inning Wake was sitting there, trying to stay loose and surely thinking about the no hitter. When he came out to pitch the bottom of the 8th, he walked the first batter. Then got an out and then he gave up the base hit to ruin his no hitter. He eventually pitched a complete game and gave up 2 runs on just 4 hits.
So sorry Sox fans, this one was on me again. Just like the Schilling almost no hitter, I blew it for them again. Next time we are having a no hit bid, I think I will turn off the TV and check back in a couple of hours. Then we will get another no hitter.
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