Sox, Wakefield knuckle under

Didn't look good at all.

The thinking? Well, the Orioles were ahead, 7-0, against an ineffective Tim Wakefield, and there were certainly signs his team wasn't going to do much against Orioles starter Sidney Ponson. Why not save Varitek's legs for this afternoon's series finale? That appeared to be what Francona was thinking.

While not regretting it, Francona didn't look like a guy who felt too good about it.

''Yeah, believe me. I'm aware of the situation Shop came up in," said Francona. ''I guess that's the best thing I can say. I'm aware. I know. You try and do the best you can. These games for me are almost harder. In close games you know what you're going to do. I want him to catch tomorrow. I want him to catch a lot. I think if I said I regretted it, I'd be wrong. I don't do anything without thinking it through, but at the same time I'm aware of the situation he came up in."

The Sox had finally gotten to Ponson in the seventh when Kevin Millar, who was booed by the fans throughout (a fielding error and a 1-for-4 night at the plate), reached on an error by Miguel Tejada, who tried to backhand the grounder and made a poor throw to first.

After Bill Mueller walked, Mark Bellhorn singled to right to load the bases, Millar scored on Johnny Damon's sacrifice fly to left.

After Edgar Renteria flied out, David Ortiz drew a walk to reload the bases. That brought up Manny Ramirez, who singled up the middle, scoring a pair of runs. The Sox had runners at first and second when Ponson was replaced by lefthander Steve Kline.

Francona countered by pinch hitting the righthanded Jay Payton for Trot Nixon. Payton drew a walk, prompting another pitching change, with righthander Todd Williams coming on to face Shoppach. The rookie tapped out to Chris Gomez.

''You can't play a second-guess game," Varitek said. ''We weren't playing a good game. We're still down four and he's [Shoppach] in the game. No sense making a story out of something that's not a story."

Damon agreed: ''We're going to stick together on that one. You'd always like Jason in there but it's 162 games and the decision was made to take him out."

It wasn't Francona who got to Wakefield.

Wakefield always has some turbulence to overcome with his knuckleball, but normally the good times outnumber the bad.

Lately that hasn't been the case.