09:23 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 21, 2006

BOSTON -- Trot Nixon went 3 for 4 last night, raising his batting average to .327, which vaulted him into the league's top 10.

There are other sets of statistics that bespeak of Nixon's solid season at the plate, such as on-base percentage (.431), but one that really jumps out is his walks-to-strikeouts ratio.

This season, Nixon has drawn 37 bases on balls and has whiffed only 21 times in 250 plate appearances.

Clearly, the Red Sox right fielder has become more patient at the plate, not uncommon for a player as the years go by. It's a question of knowledge -- not only of the opposing pitcher and that pitcher's tendencies in certain situations, but also the hitter's knowledge of how to maximize his abilities.

In Nixon's case, this has manifested itself by chasing fewer pitches out of the strike zone, part of the reason he was the fifth-toughest player to strike out in the American League heading into last night's game.

He has never had a season in which he has had more walks than strikeouts. A year ago, for instance, in 470 plate appearances, Nixon walked 53 times and whiffed 59 times. That's 220 more plate appearances and only 16 more walks than he has already received this season.

Nixon's other full-season walks-to-strikeouts ratios have been 53-75 (1999), 63-85 (2000), 79-113 (2001), 65-109 (2002) and 65-96 (2003).

That patience, though, doesn't just translate into walks. It also has helped him get ahead in the count, another key ingredient to offensive success over the long season, because he isn't chasing marginal strikes early in the count, getting himself out.

Nixon showed last night how getting in a hitter's count can tilt the odds in the hitter's favor. After lining a first-pitch single in his first at-bat, Nixon clouted a 3-and-0 pitch for an RBI double to left-center and rifled a 2-and-0 pitch for a ground-rule double to right in the second and fourth innings, respectively.

Trend continues

Jose Vidro continued a trend that switch hitters have been using against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Vidro, the Nationals' second baseman, elected to bat right-handed against Wakefield, a right-hander. Normally, as a switch hitter, he bats left-handed against right-handers and right-handed against lefties.

It marked the fourth game in a row that a switch hitter has batted right-handed against Wakefield. The others were Detroit's Carlos Guillen, Texas' Mark Teixeira and Minnesota's Luis Castillo.

There are two theories for doing this. One is that many knucklers break down and toward right-handed hitters. Batting left-handed, that would be a down-and-away movement, which makes it more difficult to hit. The other theory is that a switch hitter will choose to bat from his more dominant side against a knuckleball pitcher.

Vidro went 0 for 2. Guillen went 1 for 3, his hit a homer; Teixeira was 0 for 2 with a walk; Castillo was 2 for 2 (singles) with a walk.

Strange, indeed

Strange play in the second:

Youkilis hit a roller down the third-base line. The third baseman let it roll, hoping it would roll foul. Mirabelli, running at third, went back to the bag and had his foot on the bag. The ball hit Mirabelli's ankle and ricocheted toward left field.

Third-base umpire Rick Reed called it a foul ball, ruling the ball was foul when it struck Mirabelli, who had his toes on the bag and the rest of his foot in foul territory.

By rule, had the ball been fair when it hit Mirabelli, he would have been out, even though his foot was on the bag, and Youkilis would have been credited with a hit.

That's inexperience

Alfonso Soriano's inexperience in left field was apparent in the second and third innings.

With runners at first and second and one out, Doug Mirabelli laced a shot off the wall toward the left-field line. Trot Nixon easily scored from second.

Soriano, a second baseman his entire career before being coaxed by the Nationals to play left, fielded the carom cleanly, but instead of throwing to second, to keep Mirabelli at first base and the double play in order, he threw to third, where he had no chance at nailing Mike Lowell, running from first. So Mirabelli took second without a throw and was credited with a double.

Now, with runners at second and third and one out, instead of first and third, Washington manager Frank Robinson brought his infield in instead of having the infield back at double play depth. The Nationals were promptly burned when Alex Cora's weak grounder found its way up the middle past drawn-in shortstop Royce Clayton and into center field for an RBI single.

Soriano was guilty of an ugly error in the third. He charged a sinking liner hit by Kevin Youkilis, thinking he could catch the ball. But he got caught in no-man's land -- not close enough to catch the ball but too close to corral the short hop.

The ball bounded past him, permitting Cora to score from first. It was Soriano's seventh error.

In a six-run inning, which is what the Red Sox hung on Washington starter Livan Hernandez in the second, there were plenty of at-bats that were vital to the offensive explosion.

Two of them, though, were walks, the type that drive any manager crazy. With Nixon at first and none out in a 0-0 game, Hernandez got ahead of Lowell at 0 and 2. He missed the strike zone with his next four pitches, though, giving the Sox' inning some momentum.

Later, with a chance to slow Boston's charge, Hernandez also got ahead of Youkilis at 0 and 2. And he walked him, too.

Those bases on balls contributed to Hernandez's 39 pitches in the inning -- and he only got two outs, lifted with Boston on top, 6-0, after Nixon smoked a 3-and-0 pitch for an RBI double to left-center.

2nd a bonanza The second inning was a bonanza for most of the Sox, but not Coco Crisp, who suffered the ignominy of making the first and third outs, on a foulout to third and a called third strike, respectively.

Crisp, though, got his revenge in the fourth, smacking a two-out RBI single up the middle. And he clubbed his first Fenway Park homer, a solo shot, in the seventh.

When employing the shift against the Sox' David Ortiz, most teams not only swing around the second baseman to the hole on the right side, they also put him in that path, but about 20-30 feet onto the outfield grass.

That gives the fielder more range and, because Ortiz is a slow runner, they can throw him out on a grounder to shallow right even.

The Nationals haven't done that. The second baseman has been swung around, but has stayed in the dirt part of the infield. That positioning helped Ortiz notch a first-inning single last night on a soft line drive to right that might have been caught had the second baseman been playing back where other teams station him.

skrasner@projo.com /(401) 277-7340