The Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia slides home safely past Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer on Kevin Youkilis’ infield single during the fourth inning of last night’s game.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Wakefield put the Boston Red Sox in a deep hole.

By the time he was lifted with two outs in the third, the Red Sox were six runs down.

They didn’t quit, though, and they nearly came from behind for at least a tie in the ninth inning against Joe Nathan, one of the game’s best closers, before being forced to swallow a 9-8 loss to the Minnesota Twins last night at the Metrodome.

Nathan was tagged for two runs, but managed to claim his 12th save of the year because he made a great fielding play to trap J.D. Drew at third base for the second out of the inning and then retired pinch-hitter Manny Ramirez on a routine grounder to short with the potential tying run at second base for the final out.

“That’s a hard way to play the game, but that was as exciting a game you can have and not win,” said Boston manager Terry Francona of trying to come from so far behind.

“We gave ourselves a chance in a game where a lot of teams wouldn’t have a chance. There was no choice when you spot them some runs like that, but we gave it a shot,” he said.

The Sox kept coming, slicing their deficits from 5-0 and 7-1 down to 7-4. And when Coco Crisp crushed his second homer in as many nights, a two-run shot in the seventh, Boston was down by only two, at 8-6. Craig Monroe’s second homer of the game, off Mike Timlin, made it a 9-6 game in the seventh and set the stage for the dramatic ninth.

The uprising began with one-out singles by Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell. Then Drew smoked a laser right at center fielder Carlos Gomez, the toughest play for an outfielder to make, and the ball sizzled over his glove for a RBI double that short-hopped the fence at the 408-foot marker.

Suddenly it was 9-7, the tying runs in scoring position and Crisp up.

Crisp ripped a shot up the middle, and that’s when the game turned for the Twins and against the Sox.

The ball ricocheted off Nathan’s glove and hopped behind him. Lowell scored easily from third. Drew, meanwhile, had to make a quick read on the ball and react to the ricochet. He took off for third.

Nathan, though, made a remarkable recovery. He quickly turned and chased down the ball as it bounded on the turf toward shortstop. He barehanded it and threw to third baseman Mike Lamb, who slapped the tag on Drew on his headfirst slide into the base.

So it was 9-8, but instead of first and third and one out, there were two outs and Crisp at first.

“There’s no fault there,” said Francona of Drew’s play. “Crisp hit the ball, J.D. was going and Nathan just made a great play. A great play.”

Drew still was trying to dissect the play in his own mind afterward.

“I started running, then froze. I saw it take a hop behind Nathan and I felt like it was coming at me,” said Drew. “I thought it was going between Nathan and (Adam) Everett (the Twins’ shortstop). That’s how I read it. It was just an unfortunate read.”

An understandable read, certainly, but he realized as he was nearing third base that it was an unfortunate read.

“I could feel it,” said Drew of the fact he was about to slide into a crucial out. “I heard the crowd. I saw the third baseman tense like he was ready for a throw. It was just one of those circumstances. It wasn’t a bad read, just an unfortunate read. I thought it was going more toward shortstop and I didn’t want to still be standing on second. I didn’t see it yet (on video), but I heard Nathan made a great play.”

The Sox still weren’t done, though.

Crisp swiped second base on Nathan’s first pitch to Ramirez, who hadn’t started because of a tight right hamstring. Francona had sent him up to bat for Kevin Cash.

“I had some qualms (about using him), but we’ve come from that far back, that’s a pretty good hitter not to hit,” said Francona.

The count went to 1-and-1 on Ramirez, and he bounced the next one to shortstop. Everett easily threw him out and that was it for the Sox, who fell to 4-3 on this 10-game trip.

The loss went to Wakefield, who was tagged for two homers and seven runs, six of which were earned, in only 2 2/3 innings.

It was the shortest start for Wakefield in 243 starts since 1997 in which there weren’t extenuating circumstances. Over that stretch he pitched two innings against Tampa Bay in a late-season playoff tuneup and earlier that year he had to come out after two innings in Milwaukee because he was hit on the ankle by a pitch.

The stinkeroo followed an absolutely brilliant start in Detroit last Tuesday in which he authored a rocking-chair-easy two-hit, eighth-inning shutout of the potent Tigers.

In that outing, Wakefield was able to mix in fastballs and curveballs with success because he was throwing strikes with his knuckleball and getting ahead. Last night, despite the fact Wakefield generally has success in a climate-controlled dome, his knuckler consistently was high in the strike zone.

Craig Monroe hit a decent but high knuckler for a three-run homer to left-center, and then light-hitting Adam Everett lofted a 2-and-0 fastball at the batting-practice speed of 75 mph to left for his first homer of the year, putting the Twins on top, 5-0, in the second inning. Mike Lamb’s two-out, two-run single in the third made it a 7-1 game and finished Wakefield.

“It was one of those games where I didn’t feel like I was struggling,” said Wakefield. “I felt like I had good stuff. The ball was moving all over the place but I wasn’t able to make the right pitch at the right time. This was just one of those nights you’d like to forget.”

skrasner@projo.com