BOSTON — Tim Wakefield ruins catchers. He causes retirements. He makes them hang up their spikes.

It’s not that Wakefield is a bad guy — by all accounts, he’s a gentleman — but he makes his living with the knuckleball, the dancing pitch that keeps catchers awake at night.

He once had a knuckleball soul mate in catcher Doug Mirabelli, who was so essential to Wakefield’s success that the Red Sox quickly reacquired him after they had dealt him to San Diego in 2006. But with Mirabelli’s release last spring, Wakefield has been forced to find a new batterymate to spend every fifth day with. That search has been hard on his suitors, said manager Terry Francona.

“We saw John Flaherty” — who came to spring training with the Red Sox in 2006 — “retire. I mean, Flash came over to me that first game in Fort Myers, we were playing the Twins, and he looked like a deer in the headlights. And the next day he came and got me off the treadmill and said, ‘I cannot imagine doing this every five days.’ And he retired.”

“We saw a very good backup catcher in Josh Bard get beat up. And Josh Bard was still a very good catcher, and it was hard to handle Wake,” Francona said.

Finally, Wakefield has found his match. The memories of Mirabelli linger, as they do with any long relationship, but Wakefield and Pawtucket product Kevin Cash have done well together.

“Obviously, I was with Doug for eight years, so it was difficult finding a catcher. And when Doug was let go, Cashy stepped in and picked up right [where] Doug left off. He’s done a great job so far this year, and I look forward to working with him [tonight],” Wakefield said.

They’ll be paired up in the biggest game of the year for the Red Sox. Trailing, 2-1, in the ALCS, the Sox desperately need a victory to avoid falling into a 3-1 hole.

The Rays have seen Wakefield as often as any team this year, and they have finally started to hit the right-hander after years of futility.

“We’ve had a little bit better success more recently against him, and I really don’t know why,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon. “I don’t know the answer with this thing, because when that thing is righteous and on, nobody hits it on a given day.”

dbarbari@projo.com