SEATTLE - They have been one-hit and two-hit, lost in the ninth inning and the early innings. They have had good pitching performances and bad ones - from the same starter, in fact - and in the end, they have lost five of six games on this 10-game trip through Oakland and Seattle and Baltimore.
The offensive problem was highlighted last night when a home run by Mariners No. 9 hitter Yuniesky Betancourt consigned the Red Sox to their eighth loss in their last nine road games, 1-0.
That was enough to spoil a splendid performance by Tim Wakefield, who allowed only five hits in eight innings, and to reward lefthander Erik Bedard, who shackled the Sox on two fourth-inning singles for seven innings, then turned the game over to Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz. The three combined to keep Manny Ramírez (1 for 3) in the ballpark as he bid for his 500th home run.
"I think it's a combination of things," Dustin Pedroia said of the offensive struggles. "The strike zone's been a little big. Pitchers have been throwing the ball well. I don't know.
"We had our chances, but we didn't do much."
True. That applied to Ramírez, whose single and walk hardly were the milestones the crowd of 30,752 (largely Red Sox fans) and the folks at home were waiting for. Even ESPN noticed; during the final minute of its Celtics-Pistons telecast, the network ran a crawl when Ramírez led off the seventh. He grounded out.
In the end, he wasn't the star. That honor was shared by Bedard and Wakefield. So much for Bedard's iffy season. And so much for Wakefield's iffy last few starts.
Instead of fireworks, which might have been expected with two starters who carried ERAs well north of 4.00 - Bedard at 4.70, Wakefield 5.19 - offense was almost nonexistent. Except on one pitch.
With one out in the third inning, Betancourt lofted a knuckleball 393 feet into the bullpen in left field, his third home run of the season and the 10th allowed by Wakefield (3-4). It held up, mostly because the Red Sox could do virtually nothing against Bedard (4-3) and his successors. And the one time they threatened - on singles in the fourth by Ramírez and Mike Lowell - a double play bailed out Bedard.
"I thought it was a good pitch," Wakefield said. "Other than that, I felt a lot better than my last start. Able to control the strike zone a lot more. Staying back a little bit more, allowing my arm to travel through the slot a little bit easier. Obviously, it showed with my command of the knuckleball tonight."
Wakefield struck out eight and walked just one. And he wound up throwing to an unfamiliar backstop, Jason Varitek catching the eighth in his first knuckleball action since 2005.
Was it as easy as he remembered?
"Oh, certainly," Varitek said, smiling.
