Daubach, now with the White Sox, dug in against his former Red Sox teammate, who also happens to be the current king of the knuckleball.

It was the bottom of the sixth inning, the game tied at 1. The count was also 1-1 and there were two outs and runners at the corners. Daubach raked the knuckler just fair down the right-field line for the RBI double that put the White Sox ahead for good en route to a 3-1 victory over the Red Sox.

"Wake kind of looked at me and kind of smiled and I kind of said, 'Sorry pal, I'm trying to win a game, too'. It's weird," Daubach said. "I've never experienced anything like this."

Believe it or not, beating his former team was not all that enjoyable for Daubach.

"It's tough. I didn't think it would be this tough playing my old friends," said Daubach, who hit 20-plus homers for the Red Sox the last four seasons. "Me and Wake, we played cards every flight for the last three years, on the bus, one-on-one, we both won some and lost some. To be out there facing him with my fiance sitting with his wife at the game, it's just weird, really weird. I didn't think it would be this hard."

On a night Wakefield had some of his best stuff of the season, he was ultimately done in by a man he grew to respect as a person and player.

"I'm facing him as an opponent," Wakefield said. "He's a good friend of mine, but I have to have that edge and have enough good stuff to get him out. It's one of those things where I gave him a good pitch to hit, and he's a good hitter."

The Red Sox opted not to tender Daubach a contract back in December, instead signing David Ortiz and acquiring Kevin Millar and Jeremy Giambi in trades.

Being that they are in the heat of a pennant race, the Red Sox weren't in the mood to celebrate the good fortune of their old friend.

"I'm not happy for him at all," Sox center fielder Johnny Damon said. "He's an opponent now. He's a great guy. You want him to do well against other teams. That's the unfortunate thing about this game, a guy who has been on your team before is going to beat you at some point and Daubach did."

In so doing, he made a tough-luck loser out of Wakefield. The veteran knuckleballer had a no-hitter going through four. He went seven innings and allowed three hits and two earned runs while tying his season-high of eight strikeouts.

"His knuckleball was very good today," said Boston catcher Doug Mirabelli. "That thing was nasty. It was moving all over the place."

While White Sox starter Esteban Loaiza doesn't have a knuckleball, he had just about everything else going on a night he stymied the Sox. A non-roster invitee in Spring Training, Loaiza improved to 10-2 with eight strong innings (six hits, one earned run, six strikeouts) of work.

"He only gave up one hard hit and that was to Todd Walker," Damon said. "He's a different pitcher and that's why he's 10-2 now."

The Red Sox were able to manufacture the game's first run in the top of the fourth. Damon (3-for-4) led off with a single and scooted to third on Walker's single. Nomar Garciaparra got Damon home with a fielder's choice grounder to second.

That lead stood until the bottom of the fifth, when the White Sox finally salvaged something against Wakefield. Joe Crede snapped the no-hit bid with a one-out single to left-center. Crede moved to second on a passed ball by Mirabelli. Miguel Olivo then stroked a double to left-center with Crede scoring the trying run. But thanks to a rifle-armed relay throw by Garciaparra, Jose Valentin was out at the plate.

A tense game through the first seven innings, Magglio Ordonez gave the White Sox an insurance run with an RBI double off Rudy Seanez in the eighth.

That run loomed large as the Sox put two on with one out against Chicago closer Billy Koch in the bottom of the ninth. With the tying run on second base, Koch was able to nail down his ninth save by striking out Trot Nixon to end the game.

The Red Sox have lost two out of the first three against the White Sox, and hope to earn a series split with Derek Lowe pitching Thursday afternoon.

Nobody is happier that the series is coming to a close than Daubach.

"To tell you the truth, I'm ready for this series to be over already," Daubach said. "I'm sure going to Boston (Sept. 12-14) is going to be that much tougher."