Wakefield went to his knees after absorbing the blow, then responded with his usual stoic grit, waving off manager Terry Francona and trainer Jim Rowe to remain in the game. An admirable gesture, but ultimately an empty one, as Adam Kennedy hit Wakefield's next pitch into the right-field seats, the last indignity Wakefield endured in an 8-3 loss to the Angels before a sellout crowd of 43,746 in Angel Stadium.
"I'm just glad it didn't hit me in the head," said Wakefield, who said he will undergo a CT scan today to make certain his shoulder blade is intact. "It was coming right at my face. I was lucky that I was able to duck out of the way."
Three solo home runs -- two by Johnny Damon, the other by Ortiz -- accounted for the Sox scoring last night as they lost for the ninth time in their last 11 road games. Only Curt Schilling stands in the path of the Angels moving past the Sox in the wild-card race. The Sox again are eight games behind the Yankees in the AL East and tied with Oakland in the wild-card standings after losing for the second time in three games here with Manny Ramirez on the bench with tight hamstrings.
"You said a key word -- Schilling," Francona said. "We win tomorrow, we still have a chance to have a good trip. I still feel like we can have a decent road trip."
Will Ramirez be in the lineup?
"Yes, I certainly hope to have him in there," Francona said. "We'll have to wait and see how he's doing."
A Sox loss and A's win today could put two AL West rivals ahead of the Sox in the wild-card hunt, a race that could become as daunting as the Sox' pursuit of the Yankees if Oakland goes off on one of its usual second-half tears and the Angels suddenly reap the kind of returns they expected from Bartolo Colon last winter when they invested $51 million in him over the next four years.
