For all intents and purposes, Boston’s season is on the line tonight.

Terry Francona got to choose between starting the man on the left and the man in the middle. He went left. Surprised? We are.

The Red Sox stand on the precipice of a 3-1 deficit in the ALCS, a chasm so large it would seem all but impossible to breach, particularly considering the fact that only one of Boston’s three vaunted starters actually won their outing against Cleveland.

The Indians are rolling. They got a win from the ultra-iffy Jake Westbrook last night, for God sakes, and they have one of the most consistent elder hurlers in the game on the mound tonight, with Paul Byrd scheduled to fire in plenty of strikes, most of which probably won’t be followed by balls.

The man charged with stemming that tide, with holding back the floodgates from a potential Cleveland run away is Boston’s own elder statesman, a man who once seemed ticketed for the best season of his career after turning 40. Tim Wakefield, knuckleballer extrordinaire will get the ball on the mound tonight for the Red Sox, and with him ride the hopes of saving a legitimate shot for another World Series at Fenway Park.

If you’re a Sox fan and that doesn’t make you incredibly nervous, you should check your pulse. While Wakefield started the season on a bullet train, he finished on a vehicle moving at the speed of a Big Wheel … when it wasn’t stopped by injury. He was never the same after a back injury sidelined him for two weeks, and was thoroughly rocked his last three times out on the hill.

All of which is to say that Boston better have Jon Lester at the ready if Wake devolves come inning 3. Which wouldn’t exactly be a huge surprise.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Josh Beckett, who dominated the Tribe in Game 1 while throwing only 85 pitches, could come back and pitch tonight on three days’ rest. If memory serves, that’s exactly what he did when beating the Yankees in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series en route to earning the Florida ring he and Mike Lowell both wear around Boston, earning the Series MVP trophy in the process.

So why, it begs to reason, isn’t Joshie heading back to the bump tonight? That is a very good question. Terry Francona ruled out the possibility repeatedly over the course of the last four days leading up to the faceoff. He said even down 2-1, he wouldn’t hesitate to send Wakefield to the mound.

There’s a pretty good reason for that. Even if Beckett pitched tonight and earned the win, Boston would still have to find a way to get two more wins, conceivably one from Beckett on full rest in a Game 7 and then another from either Curt Schilling or Daisuke Matsuzaka in Game 5 or 6. While that’s eminently possible, pitching Beckett three times over the course of a seven-game series would put a huge strain on him and might affect his performance in a World Series, if they got there.

Of course, as it stands now that seems a tall task. Who knows if Boston will be able to put together a rally and get past a Cleveland team that looks like it’s closer and closer to peaking every day, with a virile crowd pushing it on.

And if there’s not a World Series, what’s the use in saving your ace for one? It doesn’t make much sense to us, but be sure the Colorado Rockies are sitting back and taking notice. After all, they took care of business, so now they’ve got nothing better to do.

– Cameron Smith, Boston Globe photo