Starter Tim Wakefield had received little support from Boston's offense this season, but the team begins to make amends in a rout of Washington.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 21, 2006

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Tim Wakefield took the mound with the distinction of having the second-worst run support of any starter in the big leagues. Last night, it was as if his teammates decided to make it up to him in a few innings.

The Red Sox exploded for six runs in the second inning and kept added additional backing for Wakefield, who, buoyed by the outburst, recorded his first win in almost a month. The Sox clubbed the Washington Nationals, 11-3, for their fifth consecutive win, while boosting their interleague mark to 7-1.

"It was unbelievable," said Wakefield of the cushion provided to him. "I've always said that it makes our jobs as starting pitchers a lot easier when we got some runs on the board early."

Early, middle of the game, late -- Wakefield hadn't gotten much of anything from his hitters. In his eight losses this season, the Sox had scored a measly six runs while he was on the mound, an average of .75 runs per outing.

Four times they managed only one run; three times, they didn't score at all.

"Well-deserved," said Terry Francona of the sudden explosion, which featured a season-high 17 hits. "It was great."

And overdue. The second inning took care of everything, when the Sox batted around for the 14th time this season.

For the night, seven different Red Sox hitters knocked in at least one run and five had multi-hit games, led by shortstop Alex Cora, who was 3-for-3 at the bottom of the batting order. Mark Loretta led everyone with three RBI, two coming on a bases-loaded single in the second when the Sox sent 11 men to the plate against Washington starter Livan Hernandez.

"We really did a good job tonight, especially early on, of staying up the middle," Francona said. "Livan can do it so well. He'll give up baserunners, but then he'll get you to roll over on a double play. He changes speeds so well and throws that breaking ball. But we kept battling. We hit the ball up the middle. When he did leave some pitches over the plate, we yanked it down the line. We did a good job -- we had a very good approach."

Oddly, among the 17 hits only four went for extra-bases -- run-scoring doubles from Trot Nixon and Alex Cora in the second, a one-out double from Nixon on the fourth and a solo homer into the Monster Seats for Coco Crisp in the seventh, his first at Fenway.

Given his backing, Wakefield went back to basics, trying to get ahead and make sure the Red Sox' offensive momentum didn't stall.

"That's our job," he said, "to get our offense out of the dugout as quick as possible, and once we have the lead my objective is to get strike one and get them swinging early. I was able to get some quick outs and pitch effectively for the first four or five innings."

Indeed, Wakfield made sure the Nationals never got untracked. In the early innings, he didn't allow a base hit until Brian Schneider's one-out single in the third. Through the first four innings, he faced one batter over the minimum, and through five had allowed just two singles and no walks.

In the sixth, he sputtered some, allowing the first four hitters -- two hits, followed by two walks -- to reach. But after the second walk forced in the first Washington run, Wakefield regained his rhythm and struck out Marlon Anderson and Ryan Zimmerman before ending the inning with a flyout from Robert Fick.

"I threw some good pitches that they weren't swinging at," Wakefield said, recalling the sixth and his temporary lapse of command. "Balls where the bottom fell out down low and they weren't biting. So I tried to make some adjustment to get the ball up a little bit."

Wakefield, who has been battling back spasms the last few weeks, managed to get through six innings on 102 pitches and has been cleared to make his next start, Sunday, on normal rest.

"You get a knot in your back and it moves on you a little bit, it will hurt you," said Francona. "It's not going to go away as quickly as we would like it to because he's exerting so much while he has it. But he's able to pitch with it."

And, thanks to some support, thrive.