BOSTON — Kevin Youkilis has been a little frustrated by his recent offensive dip.

After bouncing into a fielder’s choice out in the fifth, for instance, he stomped around briefly at first base.

But the Red Sox first baseman, despite his demonstrative ways, still plays the game hard and doesn’t wallow in self-pity.

Later in the fifth, Youkilis found himself at third base with two outs. David Ortiz was at second. Manny Ramirez hit a hard bouncer toward the middle that deflected off the right foot of Texas starter Jamey Wright and ricocheted to third baseman Ramon Vazquez.

Instead of throwing to first base to get Ramirez, Vazquez saw Ortiz approaching third base. So, though Ortiz began backtracking, Vazquez ran him down and tagged him out for the third out of the inning.

Youkilis, though, was running hard to the plate, even though he knew there would be no play on him. And because he was running hard, Youkilis touched home plate before Vazquez applied the tag on Ortiz, so his run counted, giving the Sox a 2-1 advantage.

Had Vazquez thrown out Ramirez on the basic forceout, the run would not have counted, even if Youkilis had touched the plate before the out was recorded at first. By tagging Ortiz, Vazquez had taken off the forceout aspect of the play.

Cat-and-mouse game

Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield lost a cat-and-mouse game with Rangers base-stealing king Kenny Lofton in the seventh, leading to the pitcher’s hook in a one-run game.

Lofton reached base on an infield hit to the right side with two outs and Boston ahead, 2-1. Lofton already had swiped second base twice, boosting his career total to 617, the 16th-best total in big-league history.

So Wakefield tried all he could to keep Lofton from getting into scoring position.

The knuckleballer held the ball and stepped off the rubber. He held the ball and then threw over, forcing Lofton to scramble back. He threw a quick pitch to the plate (in the dirt). He threw over. He threw quickly to the plate (strike).

He threw over before he assumed the set position. He threw over from the set position. He threw a pitch using the slide step (ball). He threw another pitch from the slide step (ball), but Lofton had a huge jump on this one and easily beat the throw from catcher Doug Mirabellii for his third stolen base of the night and 618th of his career.

Wakefield threw one more pitch, ball four, and was lifted in favor of Manny Delcarmen because the next hitter, Michael Young, though only 1-for-3, had hit the ball hard in all three of his at-bats against the right-hander, who threw 101 pitches.

Very interesting

Ramirez had some interesting base-running decisions to make at third base, one of which didn’t work out in the second, the other of which produced a run and a 1-0 lead in the fourth.

His adventures began in the second. After his leadoff single through the left side, Ramirez hustled to third on J.D. Drew’s ground single through the right side.

Generally, on such a play, the runner would have no business trying to make it to third on a ball hit that hard in that location, especially with none out. But the Sox’ scouting report must have been to challenge Marlon Byrd’s arm.

So Ramirez’s hustle put pressure on Byrd to make a play, and Byrd wasn’t able to do so, his throw beating Ramirez but wide of the bag. Ramirez slid in safely on his stomach.

With runners at first and third and no outs, Drew took off on the 3-and-2 pitch to Mike Lowell. Lowell hit a bouncer to third. Ramirez broke for home on contact, apparently to keep the Sox out of a double play, even though Drew was running and therefore unlikely to be thrown out at second.

Ramirez was put out in a rundown, and the Sox didn’t score in the inning, retired on a groundout to short and a strikeout.

In the fourth, Ramirez was at third and Drew at second with none out when Lowell again hit a bouncer to third.

Ramirez took a step toward home, wisely thought better of heading to the plate, and got back to the bag as Lowell was thrown out at first.

But on Wily Mo Pena’s chopper to the shortstop hole with one out, Ramirez raced home and scored without a throw as Young, the Rangers’ shortstop, had to eat the ball. Pena was credited with an infield single.

Change of strategy

Wakefield clearly was hoping to get ahead of hitters.

So instead of using his knuckleball in an effort to rack up strike one, Wakefield threw a first-pitch fastball to each of the first three hitters he faced. He slipped called strikes past Lofton and Jerry Hairston Jr. for 0-and-1 counts, but Young smacked the first-pitch fastball he saw up the middle for a single.

Wakefield also threw a curveball in the first inning, on 0 and 2 to Hairston, who bounced it to shortstop for a double play.

Of the 10 pitches Wakefield threw in the opening inning, only six were knuckleballs, including a first-pitch inning ending popup to second lofted by Sammy Sosa.

Sweet revenge

The Rangers’ Frank Catalanotto almost nailed Wakefield with his bat. And then he went head-hunting with the baseball. But Wakefield got the best of him in the second-inning at-bat.

Catalanotto basically threw his bat at an 0-and-2 knuckler, barely ticking the ball foul as the bat sailed toward Wakefield, sliding past him and skidding to a stop on the infield grass in front of second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

Pedroia picked up the bat and tossed it to Wakefield, who tossed it gently to Catalanotto, who had come out to the mound to retrieve it.

Later, Catalanotto scalded a 3-and-2 pitch on one hop to the mound. Wakefield got his head out of the way and got his glove in position, making the catch and throwing out Catalanotto at first base.

Youkilis’s run proved to be the difference in Boston’s 2-1 win.

“That was a weird play all around,” said Youkilis. “The ball was going up the middle and hit his shoe. There’s no reason for me to jog home. You run hard. You don’t know what will happen.”

Ortiz deserved some credit, too, for backing up and evading the tag long enough for Youkilis to score.

skrasner@projo.com