Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield, delivering a knuckleball during the fifth inning last night, mixed up his pitches nicely.

AP / Aaron Harris

TORONTO — Tim Wakefield tries to be a little unpredictable with his pitches.

Obviously, the pitch he throws almost exclusively is the knuckleball, but he also has been trying to mix in his fastball and curveball at times to surprise and freeze the opposing hitters and perhaps pick up an easy strike.

Last night, for instance, his first pitch of the game was a fastball, taken by Alex Rios for a strike. His first pitch of the third inning was a curve, taken for a strike by Royce Clayton.

Sometimes, though, when he falls behind in the count and is in danger of walking a hitter, he’ll throw his fastball, which at best tops out at 75-76 mph, nothing more than batting-practice speed.

In the second, with one out and none on, Wakefield fell behind Aaron Hill, 2 and 0. He then elected to go with a fastball instead of his tougher-to-control knuckler just to get a strike. Hill took the 75 mph fastball down the middle.

Then he struck out on two more knucklers.

In the fourth, Wakefield all of a sudden had control issues. But this time, because of the hitter at the plate, he elected not to throw the proverbial get-me-over fastball cookie.

He was 3 and 0 on Frank Thomas and kept throwing knucklers, eventually walking him. He went to 3 and 0 on Lyle Overbay and walked him on another knuckler.

Up stepped Hill. The count again went to 3 and 0, now with two on and two out. This time, Hill was ready to swing at a fastball. And he got it. But he fouled back the 76 mph “heater.” Wakefield threw another fastball on 3 and 1, and missed outside for a bases-filling walk.

Fortunately for Wakefield, he found the strike zone with his knuckler for the next hitter, Jason Phillips, fanning him with the bases loaded for the final out.

Hill had another crack at Wakefield’s fastball, leading off the seventh with Boston ahead, 4-0. On a full-count pitch, Wakefield, not wanting to risk issuing a walk in this situation, threw his 76 mph fastball, and Hill popped it up to shortstop.

Wakefield, though, did not get away with a 2-and-0 fastball to Royce Clayton. The Jays’ shortstop hammered it to left-center for a double and scored on John McDonald’s soft single (off a knuckler) dunked into left, snapping Wakefield’s shutout bid.

Beating the system

Hill’s defense kept Tomo Ohka’s no-hitter intact in the fourth when he robbed David Ortiz of a hit because of the Jays’ shift on the slugger.

Hill, Toronto’s second baseman, was basically in almost medium-deep right field in line with the “hole” on the right side, stationed there on the shift with two outs in the fourth inning. He went a long way to his right and fired a long strike across his body to first baseman Lyle Overbay, nipping Ortiz at first.

It was the second straight night in which Hill, shifted into right, took a hit away from Ortiz.

But Ortiz had the last laugh. In his next at-bat, Ortiz beat the shift in titanic style. He crushed a homer to left-center, a no-doubt-about-it blast that provided the Sox with a 3-0 lead.

And Ortiz had another laugh in the eighth, when his ground ball to the normal shortstop position rolled into left field for a single, beating the shift.

A gem by Lugo

Julio Lugo robbed Vernon Wells of a hit in the first inning last night.

Lugo went to his left and smothered Wells’ grounder with a dive, righted himself and got a forceout at second.