Panickers need not apply, but if Red Sox fans wish to begin worrying about their team, they can take a number.

They've got company.

After getting manhandled by the Yankees in 2-of-3 games in the Bronx over the weekend, the Red Sox returned to Fenway Park and got treated by the visitors to a rude welcome home, a 9-6 beating by the Baltimore Orioles that was nowhere near as close as the final margin might lead the lucky souls who did not witness the game to believe.

The Sox reverted to their first-half style of play defensively, which can be summed up as sloppy. Two errors, however, were topped (or bottomed) by another poor start from Tim Wakefield (11-10), who has now posted a 9.45 ERA in his last four starts (three losses).

Wakefield's poor results are accompanied by poor timing, considering the Sox have yet to lock up a postseason berth, never mind settle on a postseason rotation.

The first-place Yankees also lost, in New York to the Toronto Blue Jays, as the wild card-leading Red Sox remained 4 1/2 games out in the AL East.

The Red Sox, 4-8 against the Orioles this season including a 2-7 mark in the last nine meetings, battled back from 5-0 and 8-2 deficits - David Ortiz (home run No. 39) and Manny Ramirez (double) each knocked in a pair of runs - but were never able to dig all the way out of a hole dug primarily by Wakefield. The knuckleballer breezed through the first three innings, then collapsed.

"We lost two big games in New York," Wakefield said. "Coming in here, starting this series, I know how important it was for me. It's my job to go out there and try to pitch a good ball game. I felt confident the first three innings. But like I said, the wheels fell off for me in the fourth and fifth. I have no excuses."

There were few excuses for the defensive lapses as well, none as drastic as a comic-tragic failed rundown between third base and home with baserunner Melvin Mora that resulted in a fifth-inning run for the Orioles.

Mora, at third, began walking toward home after Wakefield walked Rafael Palmeiro. Mora could be forgiven for thinking the walk came with the bases loaded, which had already happened when he was on third the previous inning. But this time, the walk came with first base vacant. Catcher Doug Mirabelli began the rundown as he chased Mora back toward third, and ended it five throws later from third base with a failed attempt at throwing Mora out at home when first baseman Kevin Millar, covering the plate, dropped the ball - and his glove.

A bad throw from second baseman Mark Bellhorn in the sixth inning doubled the Red Sox' error total. Along the way, Wakefield compounded his problems by serving up a grand slam to B.J. Surhoff in the fourth.

"I thought for a while that that was as poor a game as we have played," said manager Terry Francona. "I was very disappointed in the beginning of that game. I thought we would come back because we do things like that."

Fans could perhaps take solace in center fielder Johnny Damon's observation that "we could sense the quiet at the start of the game, it was pretty quiet. But you know, the worst-case scenario, at the end of the night is that we're 4 1/2 games up (over Anaheim for the wild card). I'll take that."

Damon might as well focus on what Anaheim could or could not do in the wild card race.

There was certainly not too much to take away from his own team's efforts.