A week ago in Oakland, the Red Sox leaned on Tim Wakefield hard for a long and effective start the day after a tough extra-inning loss. Wakefield responded beautifully with a complete game near no-hitter.
Today, weather permitting, the Sox will keep their fingers crossed that Wakefield can turn the trick again. Rain last night washed away the opener of a two-game set against the Twins, forcing today's day-night doubleheader. Wakefield, scheduled to start last night, will throw the first pitch at 12:35 p.m. with Brad Penny starting the 7:10 nightcap.
The stress on both bullpens will be great. The Sox simply hope Wakefield will keep it at a more manageable level than Twins starter Scott Baker.
``Any time you're going to be pressed into 18 innings in one day, you certainly hope that your starter is going to go deep into the game,'' Sox pitching coach John Farrell said. ``I think both our starters, particularly Wake, have shown they're capable of doing that. He is pitching with an extra day of rest. Not only is our bullpen in good shape going into tomorrow, as is Wake, but I think anytime you look at 18 innings in one day, there is some concern with the effect you can have going into the following day. Fortunately, there is an another off day on Thursday before the New York series. You anticipate certain things but clearly it's predicated on how deeply he can go in the game tomorrow.''
The Twins will keep their scheduled pitching with Francisco Liriano squaring off against Penny in the second game.
This is all subject to change, however, since as the team noted in its postgame release, ``the forecast for Wednesday evening calls for showers.''
Should rain wash away one of today's games, it appears likely that tomorrow would be best for the makeup. Both teams are off, with the Twins having to make the relatively short flight to Cleveland for Friday night's game.
``We'll just have a good old-fashioned long day of Baseball, hopefully,'' said manager Terry Francona, who noted Wakefield never went to the bullpen to warm up last night.
``At one point, I really thought we were going to play and I told him, `Be ready because we're going to play,' '' Francona said. ``Shows you what I know.''
Averting a doubleheader today was not discussed, since this is the Twins' only visit to Boston this season.
``I think we're obligated to try and play tomorrow, knowing that that could stretch into Thursday anyway,'' Francona said.
- msilverman@bostonherald.com
