Tim Wakefield spoke of one inning that spun wildly out of control, but what he did not say is what may have cost the Red Sox a victory. The Red Sox had chances against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. They did not score. But then, that is what has happened lately when Wakefield has been on the mound.

One night after grinding their way to a 6-5 win over the world-beating ChiSox, the Red Sox tumbled to an 8-4 defeat last night. The defeat left the Red Sox at 53-43 while dropping Wakefield's record to 8-9, a bottom line that does not accurately reflect what he has given the Red Sox this year.

In Wakefield's nine losses, the Red Sox have scored a total of 16 runs while he has been in the game. And while the White Sox exploded for six runs off Wakefield with two outs in the sixth inning, the eruption came only after the Red Sox stranded six baserunners in the previous three innings against Chicago starter Jon Garland.

"Last year, (Curt) Schilling led the world in run support. A couple of years ago it was Derek Lowe," said Sox first baseman Kevin Millar, who knocked in the only Red Sox run during Wakefield's stint last night. "This year, the guy is David Wells."

Indeed, entering last night's affair, Wells was the league leader in run support and teammate Matt Clement was fourth. That kind of production is expected from a Sox club tied for the AL lead in runs scored, particularly since the club scored more runs than any team in baseball each of the last two years.

But this year, when Wakefield pitches, the bats turn to overcooked spaghetti. Wakefield ranked 14th from the bottom in run support before the Sox went out and scored once in his 5 innings on the mound, with the most telling moment of his 2005 season coming in the top of the fifth inning.

Then, with the score tied at 1, the Sox got a leadoff single from Bill Mueller and an opposite-field hit from Tony Graffanino. They had runners at first and third with nobody out, poised for a significant rally with Johnny Damon and Edgar Renteria due up. But each proceeded to hit weak pops to first, allowing Garland to escape unscathed when he got David Ortiz to fly out.

Before a pair of three-run home runs by White Sox teammates A.J. Pierzynski and Juan Uribe in the bottom of the sixth, that is where the game turned.

"It got away in a hurry," observed Sox manager Terry Francona. "We're in a 1-1 game and Wake looks terrific, and Pierzynski fouls off some pitches and finally gets to one. Before you know it, they spread it out."

Said Wakefield: "I got into a situation with two outs and I've got Pierzynski down 0-2, and I threw a good pitch and thought it could have been called strike three. He fouled off five or six pitches and I threw a pitch that I thought was a good pitch (on the home run).

"After that home run, my job was to get another out," Wakefield concluded. "And I didn't do that."
As for the Red Sox, let this be a lesson to them: When they do not hit, they lose. Unlike last year, when the Sox had the capability to win 3-2 or 2-1, they have no such capability this season. Red Sox pitchers still rank near the bottom of baseball in ERA. And as long as that remains true, the Sox are going to have to win games by scoring runs, something they did not do last night.

By now, Wakefield knows this reality well.

Nine losses, 16 runs.

Numbers like that are just too difficult for any pitcher to overcome.