Tim Wakefield looked down the lineup card and knew exactly what was needed yesterday.

Everyone else knew, too.

Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable. The kid closer had pitched so much of late, had put out so many fires, preserved so many leads, manager Terry Francona wisely took away his spikes yesterday.

Keith Foulke also had the day off because of extended use. Mike Timlin, meanwhile, was placed on the disabled list prior to yesterday’s game because of a right shoulder strain.

So yes, if there was ever a day for a starter to go deep into a game and bail out a bullpen missing its three best relievers, this was it.

Red cape on back, Wakefield obliged.

The knuckleballer nearly ran the table yesterday, pitching eight innings of shutout baseball in the Sox’ 5-4 series-sweeping win over the Devil Rays. And the club needed every ounce of his work to survive that contest and what was left of its bullpen.

Wakefield had some help defensively, with some great plays made around him in the field, namely by Trot Nixon, Mike Lowell, Alex Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis. But that doesn’t diminish what he did.

Wakefield tends to come through in situations like this. He has a habit of rising to such occasions. This has also been somewhat typical of the Red Sox players and their season thus far, doing what’s needed.

Youkilis played left field Saturday night for the injured Manny Ramirez and did just fine. With all the injured outfielders, Nixon faced another left-handed pitcher and got the first hit of the game.

Wakefield? He hadn’t pitched very well of late, losing his previous two starts. His last time out Tuesday, the Yankees roughed him up for seven runs on six hits and five walks.

But yesterday he and his flutterball got the job done. It wasn’t his top-shelf knuckler, but it was good enough to stymie the Devil Rays. Too bad he couldn’t have extended into the ninth inning and saved some Sox fans a few ulcers as Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez danced on a tightrope.

Wakefield left after having thrown 108 pitches, allowing no runs on five hits. Did he have any thoughts about going back out in the ninth to go for the complete-game shutout?

“(Francona) asked me if I wanted to go back out and finish it,” Wakefield said. “I had 108 pitches. I really didn’t feel any need to push it any further. It’s nice to get a shutout or a complete game, but our team winning the game is more important. I told him I was done.”

Besides, with a five-run lead, you’d think whoever was left in the bullpen could handle it. Fans shouldn’t have been reaching for the antacid. As it turned out, had Wakefield had any less of a start, the Red Sox may have finished the homestand with a different result.

“I think Wake’s a smart enough guy that he knew . . . he got us deep enough where (the bullpen) wasn’t an issue,” Francona said. “If he doesn’t go that deep the way things turn out, we might be sitting here with a different story or a different ending. We were running into a little bind there - that was fairly obvious.”

Wakefield said he was probably going to log a ton of innings, no matter how well he was faring. It was just one of those days where he either had to pitch lights out, or take one for the team.

“I knew it going in,” he said. “I just tried to stay in the game as long as possible. It was just one of those situations, if things didn’t work out right, I think I would have stayed out there regardless, just to try to give those guys a rest.”

While a big deal was made of Curt Schilling’s 200th win Saturday, and rightfully so, Wakefield is also approaching a milestone. Yesterday’s win leaves him two shy of 150.

No. 148 won’t get a lot of fanfare, but yesterday, given the dymanics of the bullpen, it was huge.