By the ninth inning on Saturday night, the Fenway Park stands had empty seats galore. The rain was pouring on a positively dreary evening, and the Red Sox, aside from a near miss of a comeback attempt in the bottom of the ninth, weren't much prettier than the elements.
In a game the Sox will try to forget quickly, they committed a season-high four errors and suffered a 7-5 loss to the Braves. Meanwhile, Atlanta right-hander Kyle Davies turned in a phenomenal performance in his Major League debut, firing five shutout innings against the Sox before giving way to the bullpen.

Those fans who braved the elements until the bitter end came reasonably close to seeing the Sox pull out their most memorable comeback of the season.

Down 7-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, the Sox had whittled the deficit down to four runs by the time they took their final hacks.

Johnny Damon led off the ninth with a single off Braves right-hander Chris Reitsma. Following a walk to David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez clubbed a double off the Green Monster in left-center, scoring Damon and moving Ortiz to third. Trot Nixon, who made two sparkling catches in the top of the first, made it 7-5 with a fielder's choice grounder to short. Then it was up to captain Jason Varitek, who just got under a Reitsma offering and flew out to left to end the game.

"It was just a little too early and I caught it too far in front," said Varitek. "I just missed it."

Ultimately, that near miss was symbolic of the night, as was the frustration unleashed by shortstop Edgar Renteria, who made two errors and was ejected for arguing a called third strike for the first out of that ninth inning.

"When things are not going well, frustration comes out," said Ortiz. "He's not the first one, he's not going to be the last one."

Veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield could relate to the frustration. Despite having good stuff, the Braves continually squirted hits through the infield. Most players in the Boston clubhouse felt that Wakefield's stat line (five innings, eight hits, six earned runs) was not indicative of the way he pitched.

"For me, Tim had a great knuckleball," said Varitek, who caught Wakefield in place of the injured Doug Mirabelli. "Balls weren't scorched all over the place. The hardest ball that was hit, Trot caught."

Meanwhile, Davies (six strikeouts) had a night against the defending World Series champions that he'll likely never forget.

"The kid just threw it good," said Damon. "He threw us some strikes we could have hit, we just didn't. His composure was pretty good."

The first sign of trouble for Wakefield occurred in the third inning, when he walked Rafael Furcal, gave up a double to Marcus Giles and an RBI single to Andruw Jones.

With the bases empty and two outs, Julio Franco sparked a rally in the fourth by drawing a walk. Brian Jordan followed with a single and Raul Mondesi smashed an RBI double to left.

It all fell apart for Wakefield in the fifth, as the Braves pushed across four runs to give Davies a commanding 6-0 lead. The big hits were an RBI single by Johnny Estrada and an RBI triple by the ageless Franco. The Braves added another run (unearned) against John Halama in the sixth.

"The fifth inning really dictated the whole game for us," said Wakefield. "I think some of the balls weren't hit very hard and I couldn't stop the bleeding."

Still, the Sox had some fight left in them. They finally pushed a couple of runs in the sixth, as Kevin Millar banged a two-run single to right against reliever Jorge Sosa. Ramirez got one home in the seventh with a fielder's choice groundout, giving the Sox at least a glimmer of hope in the ninth.

But it was not to be on a night the game-time temperature was 47 degrees.

"Every time I talk to my wife and I'm on the road she says, 'Man, it's so beautiful here.' Then as soon as we get back, this is what we get," said Ortiz.

Much like the weather, the Sox have faith that some of their veteran players will warm up soon, particularly Renteria.

"The guy is working his butt off, and he's working his butt off to be the player that he wants to be," said Varitek. "He's going to do well for this team. We need him to do well for this team. He's been a very clutch player everywhere he's been and he's going to be [here]."