Tim Wakefield

Monday night’s 2-1 win at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum certainly can qualify as one of the biggest wins of the season for the Sox, considering the importance of this 10-game West Coast road trip. With the Sox knowing they cannot afford to lose many more series in the second half if they want to hang with Tampa Bay and New York, beating Oakland could prove to be the perfect cure for a group plagued by injuries.

Tim Wakefield (3-8, 5.65 ERA) takes the ball Tuesday night, hoping to forget about his last two starts and prove he is capable of staying in the rotation for the remainder of the season. With Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz returning from the disabled list this week, the veteran knuckleballer could use a strong outing to solidify himself in the rotation, although it is unlikely he will stay put after Daisuke Matsuzaka‘s impressive outing on Monday. Wakefield has struggled of late, having gone only two innings his last outing against Texas — the shortest outing of the season for him — giving up eight hits and six runs en route to a 7-2 loss. The month of July has not been kind to Wakefield. So far this month he has pitched only 15 2/3 innings, giving up 14 earned runs to total a hefty 8.04 ERA.

The Athletics have a few hitters with some success against Wakefield in the past. Jack Cust, in 25 plate appearances, has an impressive .455 average to go along with three doubles and three RBI. Kurt Suzuki has a .400 average in 16 plate appearances to go with a double and two home runs.

Toeing the rubber for the A’s will be 26-year-old Dallas Braden. Since throwing the 19th perfect game in MLB history on May 9, Braden (4-7, 3.83 ERA) has struggled. That historic outing against Tampa Bay was his last win, as he has lost five decisions since. He does have an impressive numbers at home, compiling a 3-4 record and a 3.15 ERA. With Braden coming off the disabled list and having not pitched since June 22, it will be interesting to see how many pitches the A’s will afford the young left-hander. Read the rest of this entry »

The last American League pitcher to throw a perfect game said Thursday at Fenway Park that he admires how embattled umpire Jim Joyce apologized to Armando Galarraga and publicly admitted his blown call cost the Detroit pitcher a perfect game Wednesday night.

“What Jim Joyce did afterwards, has only improved the integrity of the game because I think a lot of other people might have just hid behind the façade of ‘umpires are never wrong,’” Dallas Braden said before the series finale with the Red Sox. “We all know they make mistakes, they know make mistakes but he stepped up and admitted it. That’s all you can ask out of a guy like that because he’s one of the best in the game, we all know it and we all have a tremendous amount of respect for him, and even more so now.”

Braden threw a perfect game against Tampa Bay on May 9 but hasn’t won since. Roy Halladay threw a perfect game for Philadelphia against Florida last Saturday in Miami. Galarraga lost the perfect game and no-hitter when Jim Joyce admitted he incorrectly ruled Jason Donald safe on a close play at first with two outs in the ninth inning of Detroit’s 1-0 win over Cleveland.

“As far as Galarraga is concerned, he did absolutely what you should do in that situation, turn a blind eye to it and go get the next out,” Braden added.

[Click here to listen to Dallas Braden's unique take on the near perfecto.]

Braden said he won’t play the game of sitting back and wondering how he would’ve handled the heartbreak that Galarraga had to deal with on Wednesday night.

“I’d love to say that I would know how I would react but I can’t,” Braden added. “I can’t tell you because I’ve never had anything like that happen. To be on the brink of something so special and not quite get there. I don’t know how I would react. I really can’t put myself in his shoes but hats off to both of them again because it speaks to the integrity of the game and the integrity of those two men because he could’ve easily let it snowball and lost control of it for himself and the team but he got the next out pretty quickly and put a win up.

“He’s going to want to repeat definitely because that’s what all of us want to do, is want to repeat a good outing. I’m sure he’s going to take that game plan he took with him into that game [Wednesday] into his bullpen work and try to reapply it in Day 5.”

Yankees manager Joe Giardi announced before Friday’s game with the Red Sox that closer Mariano Rivera – out since April 30 with an upper body issue – would be available for the series opener.

However, there was a setback for the Yankees as Girardi announced that Andy Pettitte would miss his next scheduled start do to a sore left elbow. Sergio Mitre will start Monday and Javier Vazquez will start Tuesday.

“We’re going to push Andy back,” Girardi said. “He’s going to skip a start. We’ll see where he’s at in a few days. He didn’t want to skip a start. He didn’t. He wanted to pitch but we just feel it’s in the best interest of him and the whole club that we skip a start.”

Girardi said the plan, for now, is to have Pettitte back by next weekend against Minnesota.

“Have to remind yourself to think about long term,” Girardi said. “Missing start should clear it up. We’re talking about him pitching sometime in the Minnesota series so we’ll map that out.”

Catcher Jorge Posada [calf] is limited to pinch-hitting duty as the second Red Sox-Yankees series of the season opens at Fenway.

“[Posada] said he felt better. He hit extra today and ran a little bit. I’m still a little bit leery about putting him in [lineup]. It’s only been four days but that wouldn’t keep me from pinch-hitting him or using him.”

Chan Ho Park, on the disabled list with a sore right hamstring, threw 45 pitches Friday, and Girardi said he threw all his pitches and it went well. He will throw another bullpen on Sunday.

As for the fact that the Yankees are 19-8 but only in second place in the AL East because the Rays have started 20-7, Girardi said there’s plenty of season left to decide the AL East.

“I’m not too worried about standings right now,” he said. “We’re still going to play the teams around us.”

Then there’s the latest comments from Dallas Braden indicating there’s an unsettled score for Alex Rodriguez prancing across the pitcher’s mound in Oakland in an April series.

“We don’t play them until July,” Girardi said. “I’m worried about our club and what our guys say. I’m not really concerned with what other guys say. July is really a long ways away. I’m not really worried about it.”

Is Girardi worried about physical retaliation?

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” Girardi added. “I’m really worried about the Boston Red Sox, not who we’re playing in July.”