BOSTON — When a knuckleball pitcher begins to struggle with his control, it’s difficult for a manager to decide when enough is enough because the pitcher can regain his mastery of the butterfly pitch just as quickly as he lost it.

So it was with the Sox’ Tim Wakefield last night.

After a one-out double by Bobby Abreu in the second, Wakefield walked Josh Phelps, Melky Cabrera and Johnny Damon in succession, on a total of only 13 pitches.

Wakefield’s control of the knuckler abandoned him. He knew it, which was why he tried his other pitches. He threw two curveballs to Phelps after falling behind, 2 and 0, on knuckleballs. He missed with both of them. He threw fastballs to Cabrera on 1 and 0 and on 3 and 0, and missed both times.

Then he tried a fastball on 3 and 1 to Damon with the bases filled, and missed, forcing home a run. Manager Terry Francona resisted the temptation to call down to the bullpen to get someone up. His patience was rewarded.

With Wakefield clearly struggling, missing the strike zone with 12 of his previous 13 pitches, Yankee captain Derek Jeter swung at the first pitch he saw — and bounced into a rally-killing, inning-ending double play to shortstop, taking Wakefield off the hook for the time being, though he and the Sox were down, 3-0.

Wakefield sailed through the third inning, but Francona’s patience was tested again in the fourth when the knuckleball was dancing out of the zone and past catcher Doug Mirabelli. Again Wakefield tried to compensate by throwing fastballs — on 3-and-0 counts to Abreu, Damon and Hideki Matsui (a strike each time) and on 3 and 1 to Damon (popup to second).

But Cabrera dunked his 3-and-2 curveball into center for an RBI single.

Finally, after a knuckleball hit Phelps, Francona had to lift Wakefield. The Yanks were up, 6-3, when Wakefield exited, and three more runs with Kyle Snyder on the mound handed New York a 9-3 advantage.

Much ado by Manny

Boston’s third-base coach, DeMarlo Hale, has a lot of respect for the arm of Abreu, the Yankees’ right fielder, much to the obvious displeasure of the Sox’ Manny Ramirez.

With runners at first and second and two outs in the second inning and Boston trailing, 3-2, Ramirez drilled a single to right. Abreu charged the ball well and let loose a strong throw, so Hale elected to hold up Kevin Youkilis, no speed-burner, even though the struggling J.D. Drew was on deck.

As Yankee pitching coach Ron Guidry was talking to Chien-Ming Wang on the mound, Ramirez stood at first base, apparently miffed that Hale had cost him an RBI, or at least an attempt at an RBI. He looked into the dugout, waving his arms. He looked over at Hale, waving his arms as if to say, “What gives?”

When Drew popped up to third, ending the inning, Ramirez went over to Hale and discussed the situation with him. Then he playfully (?) gently pushed Hale toward the dugout and, on his way to the outfield, sauntered over to see Dustin Pedroia to discuss the situation, again waving back toward the dugout in apparent disgust over Hale’s decision to hold up Youkilis.

Preoccupied?

After walking Alex Rodriguez, leading off the second inning, Wakefield became preoccupied with holding A-Rod close.

Wakefield threw over a couple of times with Jorge Posada at the plate, but each time Rodriguez slid back safely. Wakefield fanned Posada on three pitches.

While Robinson Cano was at the plate, Wakefield threw over three times, coming very close to picking off A-Rod on one of those tosses. On a 1-and-2 pitch, Wakefield barely took a step — a slide-step to the extreme — and delivered a knuckler that rolled and stayed up in the zone, a fat pitch that Cano crushed over the Yankees’ bullpen into the bleachers for a two-run homer that gave New York an early 2-0 lead.

Trying too hard

Sometimes A-Rod tries too hard to make things happen and winds up looking foolish.

Rodriguez was booed lustily by the Sox’ fans every time he batted or made a play. And some fans in the stands were wearing Halloween-type masks that looked like a young blonde woman, a clear reference to A-Rod’s off-the-field incident in Toronto earlier in the week.

With that backdrop, Rodriguez rifled a shot over Ramirez’s head in the third.

The ball bounced off the Green Monster right back to Ramirez. A-Rod had the play in front of him. Still, he tried for a double when he had no chance. He was a dead duck, to the delight of the crowd. Ramirez’s throw to Pedroia beat Rodriguez by about 15 feet.

skrasner@projo.com