BOSTON — Most nights, Tim Wakefield will mix in fastballs and curveballs to his pitching repertoire.

Of course, he relies mostly on his signature pitch, the knuckleball, but it isn’t unusual to see him use his other pitches in an effort to surprise the opposition or battle back in the count.

Not last night, though.

Wakefield’s knuckler was so good, and he had such command of it, that, unofficially, of the 100 pitches he threw, 92 were knuckleballs. Over his final two innings, Wakefield went exclusively with the floater — 27 pitches, all knucklers, sailing to the plate in the 67- to 70-mph range.

He threw a pair of fastballs to Tampa Bay’s Josh Wilson after falling behind, 2-and-0, in the third inning. He threw three fastballs to Akinori Iwamura during a fourth-inning at-bat, walking him on the last one. He threw a curveball to Brendan Harris in the fifth, and along the way he tossed a couple of curves to Carlos Pena.

The key was that Wakefield was getting ahead in the count, so he didn’t have to throw many just-get-it-over fastballs to keep from walking batters.

“When it’s working, we go with it,” said Wakefield.

Papelbon is overpowering

On the flip side of the radar gun was Jonathan Papelbon.

He’s the flame-thrower at the end of the Sox’ bullpen, and you had to pity the Devil Rays when Boston manager Terry Francona summoned Papelbon to close out the game in the ninth.

While Wakefield’s top speed is a 76-mph fastball, Papelbon sizzled 97-mph heaters past Iwamura and Carl Crawford for strikeouts that must have looked as if they were zooming in at 197 mph after Wakefield’s knucklers.

“That 20-mph difference is really hard to adjust to as a hitter,” said catcher Doug Mirabelli. “He [Papelbon] was overpowering.”

Mirabelli helped preserve the lead

Mirabelli’s value to the team has plummeted in the eyes of the fans since he was reacquired last year and arrived with a police escort, hailed as a hero.

He was brought back last season, and again this season for one reason — he can catch Wakefield’s knuckleball.

While Mirabelli’s average has hovered around .200 or so this season, though, he has heard some boos from the Boston faithful. And it’s highly unlikely Boston will want to lavish a roster spot on Mirabelli in 2008.

But the man can handle the fluttering knuckleball, and his ability to do so preserved the Red Sox’ 1-0 lead in the seventh inning.

With Crawford perched at third base and two outs, Mirabelli slid to his right and made a nifty backhanded pickup of a knuckler to Delmon Young that hit the dirt. Had the ball eluded him, the game, of course, would have been tied.

And on the knuckler that Young swung and missed for the inning-ending strikeout, Mirabelli made a smooth backhand grab of the pitch as it began to sail away from the plate.

Hit and run is tough with a knuckler

Knuckleballs are hard to hit. That’s not news.

Yet, with his catcher, Dioner Navarro, at first base after a one-out walk in the sixth, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon put on a hit-and-run with Iwamura at the plate.

Wakefield scaled in a high knuckler that Iwamura swung at and missed, and Navarro was a dead duck at second.

It was a 1-0 game, and the Rays were hitless to that point, and Navarro had swiped three bases and hadn’t been caught this year so Maddon no doubt was trying to do something to get a runner in scoring position.

But on a hit-and-run, the runner has to make sure the pitch is thrown, so it’s more difficult to get a great jump. Navarro is not fast. And being able to make contact on such a pitch is no lock, either, making it a long-odds play that didn’t pan out for Tampa Bay.

Good relay, bad ending

The Devil Rays defense looked sharp during a perfectly executed relay in the first inning.

The only problem with it was that Navarro, the Rays’ catcher, couldn’t hang onto the relay throw, so Julio Lugo was able to slide in safely with the first run of the game.

Lugo was on first when David Ortiz crushed a one-out shot to center, near the triangle.

Center fielder B.J. Upton expertly played the carom off the wall, bare-handing the baseball and quickly throwing a strike to second baseman Brendan Harris who pivoted as he received the ball and made an accurate one-hop throw home.

The ball short-hopped Navarro just enough that he wasn’t able to corral it as a sliding Lugo neared the plate. The ball hit the ground at Navarro’s feet as Lugo touched the plate.

Rays hurler almost beheaded

Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields was a little gun-shy on Alex Cora’s bouncer up the middle in the second.

But who could blame him. In the first inning, Lugo had drilled a shot off his right arm, nearly beheading the young right-hander.

Cora, by the way, reached on an infield single when shortstop Josh Wilson made a sliding stop but threw wide of first after fielding the bouncer.

skrasner@projo.com