When Tim Wakefield is on a roll, his knuckleball dances and floats and leaves opponents muttering one expletive after another back to the dugout. But then there are those times when the knuckler goes through a flat period and Wakefield is left to do the muttering.
That is the way things are going lately for Wakefield, who lost for the fourth time in as many starts Wednesday night as the Sox were stymied by the American League East-leading Orioles, 9-3, before a crowd of 35,527 at Fenway Park.

Wakefield got in trouble early and never recovered, giving up nine hits and seven earned runs over 5 2/3 innings. After opening the season with four wins in his first five decisions, Wakefield (4-5) is now below .500 for the first time this season. The Sox will try to salvage a split of this four-game series on Thursday afternoon.

Naturally, everyone wants to know what is wrong with Wakefield. He is trying to figure it out himself.

"I'm trying to right now," said Wakefield. "I think a couple starts ago, I had good stuff and just came out on the short end of the stick and didn't get the breaks that I needed. Tonight, I just didn't have very good stuff at all. I tried to battle through the whole game. Obviously, I didn't do a very good job."

Jason Varitek, who has caught Wakefield's last three starts while Doug Mirabelli has been on the disabled list, was pretty surprised by Wednesday's end result.

"It's a strange thing. He was disgustingly nasty in the bullpen," Varitek said. "Like I said, you just don't know. For some reason, he wasn't his best."

Wakefield's first sign of trouble came in the second when B.J. Surhoff drew a one-out walk and Chris Gomez delivered a two-out double to left. That set up Geronimo Gil for a three-run homer over the Green Monster.

"The movement [on the knuckler] didn't have any depth to it," Wakefield said. "The one to Gil I left up."

Back came the Orioles for more in the third, as Miguel Tejada lofted a solo shot that barely cleared the Monster, and Sammy Sosa made it back-to-back homers. Sosa's Monster shot gave Baltimore a commanding 5-0 lead.

The way the Sox were going against Orioles right-hander Sidney Ponson, that seemed to be more than enough. The Sox mustered six hits over the first six innings but their only real rally during that span came in the fourth inning, when they had runners on first and second and nobody out. Ponson quickly snuffed out that rally, mowing down Trot Nixon (fly out to left), Varitek (grounder back to the mound) and Kevin Millar (ground out).

"I think the biggest thing [was], we got down," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "I think sometimes you have the tendency of trying to do too much -- trying to hit a five-run homer. I think it is human nature. I think that got us for a couple of innings tonight."

Wakefield never could get into a rhythm, as the Orioles tacked on a run in the fifth and another in the sixth to make it 7-0.

"I was searching the whole time," Wakefield said, "trying to figure out what was going on. I just couldn't figure it out. I'll try to watch the tapes and see if there is something mechanical. Sometimes it is a feel thing. I didn't have a very good feel for it tonight."

The Sox gave Bronson Arroyo -- who will start Saturday -- his first relief appearance of the season in the sixth, as he replaced Wakefield with two outs. Arroyo retired all four batters he faced, throwing just 13 pitches in what basically amounted to a side session that he'll now skip on Thursday.

The Boston bats showed some life in the bottom of the seventh. It started with the Sox getting a break, as Tejada fielded Millar's grounder in the hole and made an errant throw to first. Bill Mueller follwed with a walk and Mark Bellhorn singled to right to load the bases with nobody out. Johnny Damon broke Ponson's shutout bid with a sac fly to left. For a moment, Damon thought he had a two-run double.

"I hit the ball the way I wanted," said Damon. "I thought it was going off the wall there. B.J. [Surhoff] made a great running play."

With two outs, David Ortiz walked to load them up again and Manny Ramirez raked a two-run single up the middle to bring the Sox within four runs. When the Orioles went to lefty Steve Kline, the Sox sent Jay Payton up to pinch-hit for Nixon and he walked, loading the bases for the third time.

With Francona giving Varitek the last three innings off to preserve him for Thursday's afternoon game, it was left to rookie Kelly Shoppach to deliver the big hit the Sox had been searching for all night. But sidearming righty Todd Williams induced Shoppach into a grounder to second to end the inning.

The situation obviously left Francona open to some second guessing, which he was well aware of.

"Believe me, I'm aware of the situation Shop came up in," said Francona. "You try to do the best you can. These games for me are almost harder. In close games, you know what you're going to do. I want [Varitek] to catch [Thursday]. I think if I said I regretted it, I'd be wrong. I don't do anything without thinking it through, but at the same time I'm aware of the situation he came up in."

Varitek wasn't about to second-guess Francona.

"You can't play the second-guess game," Varitek said. "We weren't playing a good game. We're still down four runs right there. I'm not going to make a big deal about it. He's already in the game, the decision was already made. There's no sense making a story out of something that isn't a story right now."

And still, the Sox had another big chance. The Orioles opened up another big opportunity for the Boston in the eighth. This time, it was second baseman Gomez allowing Bellhorn's grounder to go right through his legs, setting up runners at first and second with one out. However, Orioles reliever Jorge Julio got a popup to third out of Damon and a grounder to short by Edgar Renteria.

Meanwhile, Wakefield will go back to the drawing board and try to rediscover his touch for his start in St. Louis on Monday night.

"I feel confident," said Wakefield. "I'm just not getting the job done right now."