Terry Francona saw Tim Wakefield [stats, news] give up six runs on eight hits in five innings at rainy Fenway last night but didn't think his knuckleballer was hit all that hard.

Wakefield didn't necessarily disagree. But he also took full blame for the long double he gave up to the ageless Julio Franco in Atlanta's four-run fifth inning. The Braves went on to a 7-5 win.

"The fifth-inning rally dictated the whole game for us," Wakefield said after his record fell to 4-3 with his second loss in as many starts. "Some of those hits weren't hit really hard, but I couldn't stop the bleeding."

Before the fifth, Wake gave up a run in the third without getting tattooed and then struck out the first two hitters in the fourth before a walk and two straight hits made it 2-0. Then came the four-run fifth, which started when Marcus Giles dropped a ground-rule double into the stands near Pesky's Pole and took third on Chipper Jones' soft single. Wakefield wild-pitched a run home as the Braves went on to the insurmountable lead.

Wakefield was pulled after five with the Sox down, 7-0. In his last two starts, he's been reached for 11 runs on 19 hits in 12 innings.

"He gave up a lot of hits, but I didn't see a lot of balls hit hard," Francona said. "Mix in some walks and somebody does hit the ball hard and that leads to runs. I didn't see a lot of balls that were scalded but they count."