BOSTON –— Even a one-sided Red Sox-Yankee game is not without its drama.

With the Yanks comfortably ahead, 9-3, in the bottom of the ninth, the benches emptied after Scott Proctor hit Kevin Youkilis on the helmet with a pitch.

The pitch was in apparent retaliation for second baseman Robinson Cano being hit by Javier Lopez in the top of the same inning.

Youkilis scrambled to his feet and seemed ready to charge the mound before being intercepted. Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora immediately tossed Proctor.

The benches and dugouts emptied, but calm was soon restored.

“When you have a ball coming at your head that fast, you’re going to have a reaction,” said Youkilis. “I’m fine. I’m standing here.”

Said Proctor: “(Catcher Jorge) Posada said (when I came into the game), ‘Don’t do anything here.’ I’m not even thinking about that. The way things have been going around here, I’m trying to get three quick outs. If I’m going to hit a guy, it’s going to be on the first pitch. Why would I throw four pitches and then hit him? That’s stupid. That’s not smart baseball.”

“I understand why Youk got mad. I’d be (miffed), too. But it got away from me.”

“When things like that happen,” said manager Terry Francona, “the last thing I want to have happen is for Youkilis to do something that gets him in trouble with the league.”

Yankee catcher Jorge Posada attempted to play peacemaker, talking to Francona and Youkilis.

“I’m not going to comment (on what was said),” said Youkilis. “What’s said on the field, stays on the field. There’s nothing that needs to be made public. We’ve got another game tomorrow.”

Earlier in the game, Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield had hit New York first baseman Josh Phelps and reliever Kyle Snyder later grazed Alex Rodriguez.

Meanwhile, New York starter Chien-Ming Wang hit Mike Lowell on the wrist to open the third.

Two players injured

Two Sox players were forced to leave the game with injuries.

Lowell left with a contusion of the left wrist and was replaced at third by Youkilis. Eric Hinske took over for Youkilis at first.

“Lowell got hit on the back of the hand,” said Francona. “You know him he wants to play every inning of every game, but he was pretty sore. We’ve got a 4 oclock game (today), so we got him looked at and x-rayed, and I think he’ll show up with a chance to swing the bat the way he has been.”

“It’s a little tender,” said Lowell after the game, “but I’m hoping to play tomorrow. It’s a good bruise, but nothing to cry about.”

Later, slumping J.D. Drew left the game with a sore right hamstring. Francona saw Drew talking to the training staff in the dugout in the middle of the game and replaced him after the fifth with Wily Mo Pena.

“If someone pops a hamstring because I didn’t take him out,” said Francona, “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Francona described Drew’s condition as “day-to-day.”

His nemesis

Tim Wakefield, who was tagged with the loss, has lost all three starts against the Yankees this year and is 1-8 with a 6.82 ERA in his last 10 starts against them.

Wakefield exhibited poor control, walking six in his 3 2/3 innings while tossing a wild pitch.

“Sometimes, when he doesn’t find the strike zone,” Francona offered, “it’s because he has a good (knuckleball).”

“I just didn’t have it,” said Wakefield. “I was all right in the first and third, but out of the stretch, I just didn’t feel comfortable. In the fourth inning (when he issued two walks, a wild pitch and threw two pitches that resulted in passed balls for catcher Doug Mirabelli) I was all over the place. I pretty much stunk it up. I’m embarrassed.”

He offered no explanation for his struggles against the Yankees in the last year.

“They happen to be the team when I don’t have a good feel,” Wakefield shrugged. “They’re no different (in their approach) than anybody else.”

Staying in Pawtucket

Sox pitcher Mike Timlin had a closed-door meeting with Francona yesterday afternoon, and the veteran right-hander was told he would continue his rehab with the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Timlin, who has been fighting his way back from shoulder tendinitis, will join the PawSox tomorrow in Norfolk and throw one or two innings in order to get his pitch count up. Then he’s slated to work one inning Wednesday in Richmond.

jmcdonal@projo.com