Dragnet Lake Erie: Sox at Indians

OK, here goes.

Tim Wakefield, save us again. Please.

Tim Wakefield is on the mound, trying to save the season. Just when you thought the Sox couldn’t ask any more of a 41 year-old knuckleball pitcher, they essentially decide to put their entire season on his fragile, aching back. Nice call Tito Francona.

Still, that’s the hand that Boston has been dealt. Because big-ticket free agent pick-ups of the past, Curt Schilling and Daisuke Matsuzaka, couldn’t get the job done in Games 2 or 3, the Sox are relying on the bargain basement innings eater to win a game. In case people have forgotten, for all Wakefield’s 2004 heroics (which, once again, focused largely on eating innings), the last time he had to save a season it didn’t work out. Ask the White Sox.

As a result, while Josh Beckett stews in the dugout wishing he were on the mound and getting even more pissed off heading into his start in Game 5, the ol’ flutterball will be on display. Or so we hope. Remember, Wakefield has taken struggling to a whole new level coming down the stretch this year. After starting off at a near 20-win pace and holding it through much of the season, Wakefield’s track got sloppy in the final few times out, leading many to wonder whether he would make the postseason roster at all, let alone in time to start an ALCS game.

Now here he is starting against a lineup that’s chewed up Schilling and Matsuzaka, and he’s pitching against a guy who, regardless of results, will definitely not have a hard time finding the strike zone. While Paul Byrd’s approach could help or hurt the Sox, depending on whether they revert to the patient group that frustrated C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona or if they keep swinging away early as they did last night, it could very well be a stunning contrast to Wakefield, who has to find the zone early if he’s going to be effective at all.

Now it’s time to find the answers to all those questions, starting in the top of the first. Or so Sox fans can hope.

– Cameron Smith, Globe photo