Knight slipped up in the fifth and sixth innings, first calling a ball clearly trapped by Manny Ramírez a catch, then calling a home run off Bard's bat a foul ball. Though replays showed Knight was wrong each time, and the umpires convened and got each call correct, he certainly didn't engender any sympathy from a peeved Francona, ejected for the second time this season.
"I have a feeling they probably ended up getting them both right," Francona said. "You get frustrated."
"I did not look at the video," said second base umpire Dana DeMuth, the crew chief, "but I know [we got it right]."
However, it was Wakefield's knuckleballs -- three of which left the park to left field, including back to back in the sixth -- that provided the margin in a 6-1 loss to the Padres. The game was played in front of a crowd of 44,457 Red Sox and Padres fans who were united only in booing Doug Mirabelli for striking out, which he did twice.
"Just seems like every ball I made a mistake on they hit," Wakefield said. "The stuff that I had tonight, for me to give up six runs in 5 1/3 blows me away."
Though David Ortiz smiled during batting practice, hitting pitch after pitch into the far reaches of Petco, his show of power had more to do with the metal bat he was using that any thoughts of conquering the outfield fences. Yet that distance didn't seem to bother the Padres, with Greene pushing the score to 2-0 on an 0-and-2 pitch that he deposited into the first tier of seats in left. That was followed by Kevin Kouzmanoff's single, the one changed from an out when Knight consulted his colleagues on the non-catch by Ramírez.
But what followed were the true fireworks -- and not just the sparklers blasting out of the black backdrop in center. With Mike Cameron having doubled, former Sox catcher Bard smoked a pitch off the foul pole. The ball ricocheted back into the playing field, a sure sign it was fair.
