Wakefield

BOSTON — The Red Sox yesterday placed Tim Wakefield on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to Thursday) with stiffness in his right shoulder.

The veteran knuckleballer, who had a similar problem late last season that forced him to miss the World Series, had a cortisone shot in Boston on Monday. There’s no timetable for his return. He will be examined again today to see how he has responded to the injection.

“Everybody is pretty optimistic we’ve done this in the proper time frame and we didn’t push it too far,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “When he’s able to pitch with health, that’s when we’ll pitch him. We don’t want to make a mistake and hopefully do it in the proper time frame.”

Wakefield was in the clubhouse yesterday afternoon and said he began to feel the stiffness again before the All-Star break but attempted to work through the pain.

“I’m trying to grit my teeth and get through it,” he said. “I think they made the right decision and hopefully I can be healthy in September and down the stretch.”

Despite a 7-8 record with a 3.67 ERA, Wakefield has been consistent this season and has pitched very well. The last thing he and the club wanted was for him to be out of the rotation.

“I didn’t want to go on the DL,” he said. “I figured I’d miss one start, but I don’t make the decisions around here. Looking back, it’s probably the right thing to do.

“It’s a work in progress,” he added. “Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later that I can get back out there. It’s similar to what happened last year, only last year I pitched through it. I pitched with pain for a while and it got to a point where I needed to be completely shut down. They wanted to nip it in the bud this time around.”

Wakefield, 42, realizes there’s a lot of wear and tear on his shoulder and said he was going to try to maintain it as long as possible.

jmcdonal@projo.com