It’s Up to Wakefield to Wake Up the Red Sox : AL playoffs: Unpredictable knuckleballer is called on to prevent Indians’ sweep.

Tim Wakefield’s professional fortunes have danced, dipped, risen and fallen like one of the unpredictable, 60-m.p.h. knuckleballs he lobs toward home plate.

Now, bad or good, in control or not, Wakefield will try to keep the Boston Red Sox alive tonight in Game 3 of their best-of-five playoff series against Cleveland. The Indians lead, 2-0, having brushed aside Roger Clemens in Game 1 and Erik Hanson in Game 2.

So it falls to Wakefield to defeat the major leagues’ winningest, highest-scoring team and also end the Red Sox’s 12-game playoff losing streak.

The question is which Wakefield will appear on the Fenway Park mound tonight.

Will it be the steady winner, who was 14-1 with a 1.65 earned-run average in his first 17 starts this season after having his major league career jump-started by spring tutorials with noted knuckleballers Phil and Joe Niekro?

Will it be the inconsistent right-hander, who nose-dived late in the year, losing seven of nine decisions with a 5.60 ERA in his final 10 regular-season starts?

Or, worse still for the Red Sox, will it be the minor leaguer who lost control of his knuckler while going 5-15 for triple-A Buffalo in 1994?

Wakefield dismissed any notion that his September performances were similar to his ’94 outings.

“It’s completely different,” he said. “I felt I didn’t struggle in September. I did my job as a starter. I gave the team seven or eight innings every time out. I felt I had good stuff.

“[Last year,] I was giving up four or five runs per inning.”

Wakefield won eight games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992 and two more in the National League championship series against Atlanta. The Sporting News named him NL rookie pitcher of the year.

Then came his great fall.

In ‘93, he won only six of 17 decisions for the Pirates and his control began to falter. Things only deteriorated in the minors last year. His ERA soared to 5.84 from 2.15 in 1992.

Phil and Joe Niekro, manager and pitching coach for the Silver Bullets women’s baseball team, spent time with Wakefield during extended spring training, teaching him to relax and trust his pitch. Boston signed him to a minor league contract April 27.

“The key is not to think,” said Wakefield, who visited with the Niekros recently. “You have to trust your grip and your mechanics. You just throw it over the plate. . . . The only thing I can’t control is the break on the pitch.”

Wakefield also changes speeds, throwing as slowly as 60 m.p.h. or as fast as 80, which he says has helped him win this year.

“I always had confidence I could make it back,” he said. “I felt I just needed a little adjustment, a little kick in the butt.”

Down and almost out, it would seem the Red Sox are the ones in need of a swift kick now.

Clemens, called the “heart and soul of the Boston Red Sox” by Manager Kevin Kennedy, couldn’t halt the Indians in a 5-4, 13-inning loss at Jacobs Field on Tuesday.

Hanson, a 15-game winner during the regular season, pitched a four-hitter but wound up a 4-0 loser Wednesday.

Cleveland hasn’t exactly terrorized Boston pitching, but the results certainly have been in the Indians’ favor.

Pitching has dominated the first two games. Boston is batting .177 as a team, Cleveland .184. Boston’s staff ERA is 3.92; Cleveland’s is 1.64.

“It’s hard to swallow, getting two great pitched games like we had and being down two games,” Kennedy said. “It’s unfortunate theirs [Cleveland’s starting pitching] has been a little better than ours.”

Tonight, Wakefield tries to help Boston avoid being swept out of the playoffs for the third consecutive time.

“My approach to the Indians is going to be no different than to another team with big swingers,” Wakefield said.

Winning might prove more difficult, however.