Wakefield Loses His No-Hitter, Not Game

By the end, Tim Wakefield was just glad his team won.

The knuckleballer came within three outs of pitching the Boston Red Sox’s second no-hitter this season, losing his bid on Randy Winn’s broken-bat single in the ninth inning Tuesday night as the Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-4, at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Wakefield, who twice flirted with no-hitters for Boston in 1995, was trying to duplicate the feat of Hideo Nomo, who held the Baltimore Orioles hitless on April 4.

“I’m not disappointed I gave up the hit. I’m more mentally and emotionally drained right now to take a no-hitter into the ninth,” the 34-year-old right-hander said.

“It was a knuckleball, and I thought it was a pretty good pitch. He just hit it off the end and broke his bat. It’s one of those things that it just happened to fall in.”

After Wakefield (5-1) walked Andy Sheets with two outs in the eighth, left fielder Troy O’Leary made a sliding catch on Damian Rolls’ blooper to end the inning.

In the ninth, speedy Jason Tyner led off with a slow bouncer that second baseman Jose Offerman charged. Offerman’s hurried toss was high and pulled first baseman Brian Daubach off the bag.

Official scorer Jim Ferguson reviewed it on the replay and ruled it an error on Offerman. The crowd of 12,950 cheered when the ruling was posted on the scoreboard.

“As I saw it, the throw clearly beat the runner and the umpire ruled that the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag,” Ferguson said. “That makes it an error, not a hit. The replay showed the ball clearly got there before Tyner.”

But Winn then broke up the no-hitter, lining a 1-and-2 pitch over third baseman Chris Stynes for a clean single. Tyner, who had advanced on a passed ball, scored on the hit.

“He threw a knuckleball, a pitch that was working for him all night,” Winn said. “It was up, down, in, out. It was moving all over the place. I was just lucky to flip it into left.”

Wakefield retired Greg Vaughn on a fly ball before walking Fred McGriff. That was all for Wakefield, who struck out eight and walked four in only his sixth start of the season.

Reliever Derek Lowe held on for his 11th save, giving up Aubrey Huff’s RBI single and pinch-hitter Steve Cox’s two-run double that came within a couple of feet of clearing the center-field wall for what would have been a tying homer.

“I thought it was out of here,” Wakefield said of Cox’s hit. “Luckily, it hit the top of the wall.”

There already have been two no-hitters this season, by Nomo and A.J. Burnett of the Florida Marlins at San Diego on May 12.

The last team to pitch two no-hitters in a season was the Angels in 1973, when Nolan Ryan did it twice.

Minnesota 10, Cleveland 9--The Twins overcame three home runs by Ellis Burks and several Indian rallies as A.J. Pierzynski’s two-run double in the 12th inning led Minnesota to a wild victory at Cleveland.

Pierzynski’s double ended a four-game losing streak for the Twins, who opened 1 1/2-game lead over second-place Cleveland in the American League Central.

The wild game was similar to the first of 19 matchups between the teams earlier this month when the Twins defeated the Indians, 11-10, at the Metrodome--scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on an infield single.

Corey Koskie and rookie Brian Buchanan each had four hits and Pierzynski also homered for Minnesota, which chased starter Bartolo Colon in the fifth.

Baltimore 5, Toronto 1--On a night that belonged to Cal Ripken, Josh Towers (5-1) was the star, giving up one run in seven innings at Baltimore.

The Orioles hit five solo homers, two by David Segui, for their third consecutive victory.

Ripken, who broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games, announced that he would retire after this season and received several standing ovations from Oriole fans.

“It was definitely a different environment,” Ripken said. “I equate it to opening day, or even the night of 2,130 and 2,131. The adrenaline was flowing more than it should.”

Seattle 8, Oakland 7--Bret Boone’s sacrifice fly capped a two-run rally in the ninth inning at Oakland and the Mariners rallied for a wild victory over the Athletics.

The Mariners scored five times in the final three innings to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season.

Oakland scored twice in the eighth to take the lead, but Seattle came back in the ninth against closer Jason Isringhausen (1-2), who blew his fifth save chance.

Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched a calm ninth for his 26th save in 29 chances.

Detroit 7, New York 1--Steve Sparks (5-2) pitched a three-hitter and Dean Palmer homered and drove in three runs for the Tigers at Detroit.

The Tigers ended a three-game losing streak and the Yankees, who had won five of six, failed in their attempt to go 11 games over .500 for the first time this season.

Chicago 5, Kansas City 3--Royce Clayton hit his first homer in nearly a year and James Baldwin won for the first time in five weeks as the White Sox won at Chicago.

Clayton’s three-run homer against Jeff Suppan (3-6) was his first since last July 14, when he was with the Texas Rangers. He had gone 115 games without a homer.