As if pulling on a wishbone, the two Red Sox sluggers went back and forth over who would win this one for Tim Wakefield, whose knuckler was spinning Angels heads in the ninth inning just as it had from the start.

"I told Manny [Ramirez], 'You're going to win this thing,' " said Wakefield, recounting some late-game dugout conversation. "And he said, 'No, David said he was going to win it for us.' "

And, of course, with shades of last year's heroics, Ortiz did end the evenly matched game, his walk off drive in the ninth giving Boston a 3-2 victory and Wakefield his 15th win against 10 losses. It was his second complete game of the year.

The usually reticent Wakefield while he's pitching anyway was doing plenty of talking late in the game and after it was over. Wakefield told catcher Doug Mirabelli that he had plenty of energy throughout the fairly cool evening.

"After the ninth, he told me he could go five more innings," said Mirabelli. "He just didn't make any mistakes tonight and he felt good."

Now with 125 wins, Wakefield has pushed past Mel Parnell into third place in Red Sox history, behind just Cy Young and Roger Clemens, who both stand at 192.

Despite his obvious pleasure at winning, and despite the lightning bolt of victory, Wakefield was not totally satisfied with the game.

"At first I was disappointed that I gave up that run in the seventh to tie it," he said, "[but] back out there in the eighth, I was fine. I told Dougie I had five more in me."

Wakefield managed to keep the Angels from establishing any offensive rhythm, working five scoreless innings before Orlando Cabrera deposited a quick shot over the Green Monster in the sixth.

Even archnemesis Vladimir Guerrero did no serious damage, despite two hits and two walks.

"I felt good in the pen and I felt good early in the game," said Wakefield. "I got some strikeouts and I was able to stay away from Guerrero a little bit. He had a ball that scraped the wall, but it's one of those things that it was just a terrific team effort tonight. Not only for myself, but those guys played some great defense behind me to leave me in the game for nine innings."

Despite so much postgame focus on Ortiz's dramatic shot, manager Terry Francona applauded Wakefield's performance.

"That was tremendous," he said. "He rolled a pitch to Cabrera that he hit out. [But] he seemed to have so many weapons. We all know his knuckleball, but it was so good. He and Dougie did a great job. They weren't able to run on him. He managed that.

"They were going to have to get hits to beat him, and his knuckleball worked so well he threw a couple of real good breaking balls, spotted a couple of fastballs . . . did a great job."

The shining performance was also noted by the man who delivered the denouement before 35,061 delirious fans.

"Wake was just unbelievable tonight," said Ortiz. "He was so good all night, we just had to find a way to give him our support with the bat."

And if there's a bit of deja vu developing as the September shadows lengthen, Wakefield says the team is not focused on any comparison to last year's team.

"We're only as good as our last start," he said. "We still take this thing one game at a time. I've just got to be ready to pitch against New York [Sunday]."