01:00 AM EDT on Monday, September 29, 2003

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Four years ago this week, Tim Wakefield was called into the manager's office in the visiting clubhouse of Yankee Stadium for a chat with Jimy Williams.

"I thought he was going to tell me I was going to start Game 1 (of the ALCS against the Yankees)," recalled Wakefield yesterday. "Pedro (Martinez) had pitched in Game 5 against Cleveland and I thought they were going to have me open the series."

Wakefield couldn't have been more wrong. Williams shocked Wakefield with the news that he was being left off the Red Sox roster for the best-of-seven series. Even for a player who was released after a disastrous 1994 season in the minor leagues, it was the worst news of his baseball career.

"I was completely floored," he said.

Wakefield got permission to be in uniform and was in the dugout with the rest of his teammates, but couldn't help feel a sense of detachment from the whole experience. While his teammates sympathized with his plight, Wakefield was incensed with the manager and coaching staff.

It took all winter to rid himself of the bitterness he felt.

"I used it as fuel to get in the best shape of my career," he said.

This week, as the Red Sox return to the playoffs for their first series since their ALCS defeat to the Yankees, Wakefield knows there will be no last-minute disappointments. He was told Saturday he will start Game 2 Thursday in Oakland.

The Game 2 designation wasn't important to Wakefield.

''I'm just excited to be able to start," said Wakefield in a non-too-subtle reference to his 1999 nightmare. "It didn't make much difference to me (which game)."

The Sox chose Wakefield over the more obvious Game 2 selection, Derek Lowe, chiefly because Lowe has fared far better at home than on the road, and because the dimensions of Network Associates Coliseum play to Wakefield's stengths as a fly-ball pitcher.

Over the course of the season, Wakefield got opposing hitters to hit 75 pop-ups, while Lowe, who relies mostly on his sinker and records groundouts, induced just 12. With the ample foul territory in Oakland's home ballpark -- the most of any ballpark in the majors -- the choice was an easy one.

Grady Little, the Sox' bench coach in 1999, said Wakefield is a better and more consistent pitcher now compared to then.

"I feel like he is," Little said, "but the big thing is, he feels like he is, too. He's got more confidence in himself and it shows."

Wakefield made a cameo appearance in yesterday's game, pitching two innings to get some work in in anticipation of Thursday's start. He allowed two hits and no runs, and finished the regular season 11-7 with a 4.09 ERA.

The win-loss record doesn't begin to illustrate Wakefield's effectiveness or value to the team. In 21 full starts -- counting yesterday's abbreviated appearance -- Wakefield held opponents to three runs or less. Only four times did he yield more than four runs.

Consistency wasn't always a hallmark of Wakefield's career. While he was spectacular in the first four months of his first Red Sox season (1995), he was similarly ineffective over the final six weeks, a stretch which carried into the brief postseason.

In many ways, Wakefield was like the little girl with the curl in Longfellow's poem -- when he was good, he was very good; when he was bad, he was horrid.

Not anymore. Now, Wakefield's season's are steady and even.

"He's got different things he can go to now," said Little. "If he's in trouble, or he's behind 3-and-0, he can throw that 'gas' of his, the 77 mph fastball, or he might throw a curve. He's got different options now, and that makes a big difference."

"I'm more experienced," said Wakefield matter of factly. "I know how to use my other pitches in certain situations and I know the hitters a little better."

Wakefield also is more likely to change speeds on his signature speed, pitch, adding and subtracting velocity to suit the situation and give hitters different looks at the knuckler.

"You can't substitute for experience," Wakefield said. "When you go through troubling times, it makes you better. I've experienced a lot here. I've been a closer, and I've been on the back burner. Everything you go through, it helps you in the long run."