History Delayed: No Support In Wakefield's Quest For 200, Pedroia Has Hitting Streak Snapped Against White Sox

Tim Wakefield will have to wait at least a few more days for win number 200 as Gavin Floyd and the White Sox held the Red Sox to just the one run Friday.

The Red Sox' offense was, quite simply, terrible. There were a few solid at bats that resulted in hard-hit outs--Yamaico Navarro, David Ortiz, Carl Crawford, and Kevin Youkilis were all victims of bad luck in that respect--but it's hard to discount an 0-for-20 performance from the top-six. That includes Dustin Pedroia, who saw his hitting streak come to an end at 25 games. 

The only real offensive production of the night would come from Jarrod Saltalamacchia. While Marco Scutaro and Drew Sutton grabbed singles on an infield hit and a botched bit of defense by Juan Pierre and Alexei Ramirez, Saltalamacchia's contribution was rather more impressive. Working an eight-pitch at bat in the third inning, Salty waited until he got the pitch he wanted--a 3-2 slider that stayed up in the zone--and sent it flying into the stands in right for a solo shot.

Other than that, though, the Sox just came up empty, time-after-time. They did have a shot in the sixth inning with the bases loaded, but Kevin Youkilis was called out on an outside pitch by home plate umpire Rob Drake. No excuses here--he was terrible for both teams--but it bears mentioning that the umpires just seem to be getting worse and worse.

Tim Wakefield did all he should have had to in order to pick up his 200th win, but a bit of small ball--two bunts, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly--proved enough to tie the game in the sixth, and one bad pitch was all A.J. Pierzynski needed to see to dash his chances of reaching the milestone tonight.

The Sox are 2-3 in their last five games and 0-4 against the White Sox--figures that might be a bit more disheartening were it not for the 18-6 mark in July. Sometimes things just go wrong for a few days.