The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 35

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2007 The Boston Globe D5 Lugo a flop, so he's flipped with Pedroia By Gordon Edes GLOBE STAFF i3 RED SOX NOTEBOOK It was 10 years ago that another Red Sox rookie, who had been hitting in the ninth spot all spring, was promoted by JIM DAVISGLOBE STAFF bury Comics, CVS, and Wal-Mart And there is no better read for baseball fans this spring than "The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck America" by Joe Posnanski, the award-winning columnist for the Kansas City Star. Stolen glances Jason Varitek has thrown out 2 of 22 runners who have attempted to steal. That's a success rate of 9.1 percent. Doug Mirabelli, meanwhile, has thrown out 5 of 22, a 22.7 percent success rate, even though he's catching Tim Wakefield, whose knuckleball invites base stealers to run. Francona said the Sox pitch out more when Wakefield pitches, which gives Mirabelli more chances to throw out runners.

He also insisted that Varitek is throwing as well as he ever has, "and, working with Gary Tuck, he's receiving better than at any time since I've been here." Francona said the Sox pitch out a lot less than other clubs, and eschew the slide step in many situations. "We'd rather give up the stolen base," he said, "than the two-run home run." frft EDES MAILBAG: Read Mum Gordon Edes's responses to readers' Red Sox questions; go to www.boston.comredsox. Lugo was at .274 (.276 in the lead-off spot, tied with Rocco Baldelli of the Devil Rays for worst leadoff OBP in the AL). Contrast that to Hanley Ramirez, the former Sox prospect who began the night with a .425 OBP while batting leadoff for the Marlins. Lugo was batting just .130 (12 for 92) in his last 22 games.

Overall, he was batting .213, the lowest average among Sox regulars. "Lately, I think he's gotten himself into a bind where his weight comes forward and the bat head is dragging a little bit," Francona said. "Easy for me to sit here and say that. He knows it. Just sometimes you get yourself into habits that are really hard to break.

"You can see he's frustrated. It's been tough for him. I think we all felt he'd get better." Francona said he called Lugo yesterday and informed him of the news. Lugo said he appreciated the gesture. "When you're on the top of the lineup, you need to get on base more consistently, and I understand that," said Lugo, who homered and walked in his first two plate appearances Friday in Arizona, then failed to get the ball out of the infield the rest of the weekend.

"If you're not getting it done and somebody can get it done better, let's do what it takes to keep winning, that's all. of our order. "He's a little unorthodox. I think that as a coaching staff, you can fall into the problem of, 'Oh, we've got to change him. He's at the major league level, he can't possibly do it like Well you know what, he can.

We'd be wrong to jump in. This kid's pretty unique. "His ability to defy the odds, because of his size, at every level, he has what appears to be an uphill swing, but I'm not sure it is. The barrel of the bat gets to the ball and keeps it on line pretty often." Measuring stick A comparison of Daisuke Mat-suzaka and Hideo Nomo, the Japanese pitcher who serves as the benchmark for countrymen pitching in the majors, through their first 13 starts: Nomo: 6-1, 2 CG, 2 shutouts, 1.99 ERA, .158 opponents' batting average, 119 K's in 9OY3 innings. Matsuzaka: 7-5, 1 CG, 0 shutouts, 4.52 ERA, .257 opponents' batting average, 85 K's in 85y3IP.

Only three AL pitchers have more wins than Matsuzaka: teammate Josh Beckett, John Lackey of the Angels, and C.C. Sabathia of the Indians. He is sixth in strikeouts and ninth in innings pitched. Matsuzaka is leading the AL in pitches per start (108.77) and ranks third in the majors behind Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and Aaron Harang of the Reds. Counting stars In All-Star balloting numbers released yesterday, Coco Crisp ranked 12th among AL outfielders with 333,760 votes, fewer than 27,000 behind Hideki Matsui of the Yankees and within 60,000 of Gary Sheffield of the Tigers.

Crisp has more votes than Sammy Sosa, Carl Crawford, and Jermaine Dye. Lugo, meanwhile, ranks fourth at shortstop, with almost 110,000 votes more than Orlando Cabrera of the Angels. Cabrera is hitting .332. David Ortiz continues to lead the voting at first base, while Manny Ramirez ranks second among outfielders The Sox are taking all full-time front-office employees to San Diego when the team plays there the weekend of June 22-24 If you're searching for a Father's Day gift for the Sox fan in the household, you couldn't do much better than "Impossible to Forget: The Story of the '67 Boston Red Sox," a two-DVD set retailing for $24.99. With rare footage provided by the New England Sports Museum, including a full-game broadcast in color of the penultimate game of the '67 season, the set comes highly recommended by museum curator Richard Johnson and is available at Best Buy, New manager Jimy Williams to the leadoff spot on Opening Day.

That move worked out pretty well, both for Nomar Gar-ciaparra, who was elected the American League's Rookie of the Year, and the Sox. Yesterday, with 100 games left in the season, manager Terry Frati-cona made his first major lineup shakeup, installing rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who began the season hitting ninth, in the leadoff spot and bouncing expensive free agent Julio Lugo into the No. 9 hole. The only surprise was that Francona didn't do it sooner. He acknowledged yesterday that he thought about it last week in Oakland, but held off because the Sox were headed to a National League park (Arizona), which meant some other lineup shuffling would be required.

You need only check one column on the stat sheet to understand why the move was made: Pedroia had an on-base percentage of .399, third on the team behind Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. Kevin Youkilis grasped the situation and Wily Mo Pena before the game. "You always want to hit at the top of the lineup, but it makes no difference to me. I just don't want to hit 10th, that's all." Pedroia actually had cooled off in recent days (3 for 18, .167 in the last six games) but hit .381 (8 for 21) on the last trip and has impressed the Sox with his approach at the plate, with more walks (19) than strikeouts (14). "Early in the year, we tried to protect him a bit," Francona said.

"We think he's proven he's going to get on base and give you a good at-bat, and swing at strikes for the most part. He's a big part of our ball club, and we value guys getting on base in front of the middle Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 at Fenway Park HOW THE RUNS SCORED THIRD INNING RED SOX Mirabelli struck out. Lugo doubled to left. Pedroia grounded to shortstop. Lugo stole third.

Youkilis doubled to right, scoring Lugo. Ortiz walked. Ramirez Struck out. ONE RUN, TWO HITS, TWO LEFT. EIGHTH INNING ROCKIES Hawpe doubled to right.

Spilborghs flied to right, Hawpe advancing to third. Tulowitzki flied to right Torrealba singled to center, scoring Hawpe. Taveras grounded to catcher, unassisted. ONE RUN, TWO HITS, ONE LEFT. RED SOX Pedroia singled to left Cora ran for Pedroia.

Youkilis flied to center. Affeldt relieved Cook. Ortiz doubled to right, moving Cora to third. Ramirez was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Drew hit a sacrifice fly to center.

Corpas relieved Affeldt. Lowell grounded to shortstop. ONE RUN, TWO HITS, TWO LEFT. Colorado 000 00 il-l 4 Boston MI WW Mx-2 8 COLORADO AB Bl BB SO Avg. Taveras cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .314 Matsui 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .311 Holliday If 4 0 0 0 0 0 .346 Helton lb 4 0 0 0 0 1 .326 Atkins 3b 2 0 0 0 1 0 .235 Hawperf 3 1 1 0 0 1 .297 Spilborghs dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 .326 Tulowitzkiss 3 0 0 0 0 1 .261 Torrealba 3 0 2 1 0 0 .236 Totals 30 1 4 1 1 5 BOSTON AB Bl BB SO Avg.

Pedroia 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .314 Corapr-2b 0 1 0 0 0 0 .287 Youkilis lb 4 0 1 1 0 1 .335 Ortiz dh 3 0 3 0 1 0 .340 Ramirez If 2 0 0 0 2 1 .289 Drewrf 3 0 0 1 0 0 .240 Lowell 3b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .311 Crisp cf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .225 Mirabelli 3 0 0 0 0 1 .193 Lugoss 3 1 1 0 0 0 .215 Totals 29 2 8 2 3 4 1 ft III I i It 1 1 mm "im. mnt LOB-Colorado 3, Boston 7. 2B-Hawpe (15). Torrealba (5), Youkilis (18), Ortiz (25), Lugo (12). SB-Lugo (18).

SF-Drew. GIDP-Tulowitzki, Drew, Mirabelli. Runners left in scoring position-Colorado 1 (Matsui); Boston 3 (Ramirez, Lowell 2). Runners moved up-Taveras, Spilborghs. DP-Colo-rado 2 (Atkins, Matsui and Helton), (Matsui, Tulowitzki and Helton); Boston 1 (Lugo, Pedroia and Youkilis).

Colorado IP RERBBSO NP ERA Cook (L 4-3) 7ft 7 2 2 2 4119 4.37 Affeldt ft 1 0 0 1 0 12 2.88 Corpas Vi 0 0 0 0 0 5 2.87 Boston IP RERBBSO NP ERA Wkfield(W6-7) 8 4 1 1 1 3 102 3.92 Papelbon (S 15) 1 0 0 0 0 2 15 1.93 Inherited runners-scored-Affeldt 1-1, Corpas 2-0. IBB-off Affeldt (Ramirez). Umpires-Home, Bruce Froemming; First, Mike Winters; Second, James Hoye; Third, Mark Wegner. -4Kk JIM DAVISGLOBE STAFF I 1 Celebrating J.D. Drew's go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth, Julio Lugo, who had been on first base, took advantage of a Colorado pitching change to get the jump on Manny Ramirez in the dugout.

Lugo had doubled and scored in the third. JIM DAVISGLOBE STAFF Alex Cora races home with the winning run in the eighth. Red Sox solid as a rock BATTING He kept tight grip Protecting one-run lead helped Wakefield focus By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell GLOBE STAFF Tim Wakefield had rarely seen and never beaten the Colorado Rockies. The Red Sox righthander had an 0-3 record, a 5.79 ERA, and one save in four appearances against them. But last night, the Rockies couldn't solve Wakefield's knuckleball.

He threw a season-high eight innings, gave up four hits and one run, struck out three, and walked one in a 2-1 victory at Fenway Park. Wakefield gave much of the credit to catcher Doug Mirabelli. "Dougie did a phenomenal job behind the plate," said Wakefield. "Early in the game, I was throwing more fastballs than I normally throw to get even in the count and to get back to the knuckleball." Wakefield's only trouble came in the eighth. Brad Hawpe doubled to right and advanced to third on a Ryan Spilborghs fly ball.

With two down, Yorvit Torrealba singled up the middle, scoring Hawpe and tying the game, 1-1. But a Willy Taveras ground out prevented further damage. The Sox spared Wakefield a no-decision on J.D. Drew's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth, and Jonathan Papelbon's perfect ninth enabled the knuckleballer to improve to 6-7. Wakefield had no problem focusing because it was such a tight game.

"Aaron Cook was throwing a great game, we had one run on the board, and you can't make a mistake," he said. "I've always said it's easier to pitch with a lead, but it's hard to pitch with a one-run lead versus a couple-run lead because you can't make a mistake." If Wakefield would like a pitch back, it was the one to Torrealba. "There in the eighth inning, after the leadoff double, I had an opportunity to pitch my way out of it and I left the ball up to their catcher," he said. "I'm just thankful our offense came through in the bottom of the eighth to get the win. To be able to hand the ball over to Papelbon there in the ninth was pretty special." Wakefield has labored at times this season.

On June 1, he lost to the Yankees, 9-5. But Mirabelli spotted something. "He found a little mechanical flaw between my last start here until we went to Oakland," said Wakefield. "He saw something in my delivery that we changed, and it felt a lot better and I carried that into the Oakland start." Wakefield lost to the A's, 3-2, last Thursday, but felt he was on the right track. Last night, he threw 102 pitches, 67 for strikes, and he has gone at least sue innings in 10 of 13 starts.

Wakefield said he didn't know if the Rockies' lack of familiarity with him was an advantage. He felt their lineup was more than capable of getting the job done particularly first baseman Todd Helton and left fielder Matt Holliday. But they were a combined 0 for 8 against him. "I'm facing two of the top hitters in the National League," said Wakefield. "They're very tough.

They have great speed at the top of the lineup, and you really don't want them to get on base. I was able to keep those guys off base most of the night or all night." Manager Terry Francona felt Wakefield had command of his pitches. "He came out and was good and he was good right up until the end," said Francona. "And he had to be because their guy was very impressive. It was a nice, clean game to win." 30 14 20 Ortiz Pedroia Lowell Ramirez Cora Varitek AB RBI Avg.

2B 3B HR SB CS BB 215 43 73 42 J40 25 0 11 0 0 0 44 233 43 78 33 .335 18 1 8 2 2 0 29 156 21 49 16 .314 13 0 2 2 0 0 19 219 30 68 47 .311 18 0 11 11 2 0 22 225 33 65 33 .289 13 1 8 1 0 0 37 87 10 25 13 .287 2 3 2 1 0 1 3 172 26 46 31 .267 7 2 7 5 1 0 23 83 13 20 10 .241 4 0 4 3 0 1 9 179 32 43 25 .240 7 1 4 3 1 1 30 213 31 48 16 .225 9 2 1 0 12 2 16 242 30 52 34 .215 12 1 4 8 18 0 21 57 2 11 4 .193 1 0 2 1 0 0 3 62 11 11 5 .177 4 1 1 3 0 0 9 2150 325 590 309 .274 130 12 65 43 35 5 267 31 38 Pena Drew Crisp Lugo Mirabelli. Hinske 33 17 17 20 .28 Team PITCHING App. ERA IP CG ER BB SO HR Sv. Okajima 28 2 0 1.14 31tt 17 0 4 8 29 1 4 Papelbon 22 0 1 1.93 23W 14 0 5 10 34 2 15 Snyder 18 1 1 2.25 20 19 0 5 9 14 2 0 Beckett 11 9 0 2.88 72 56 0 23 16 67 3 0 Donnelly 27 2 1 3.05 20 19 0 7 5 15 0 0 Lopez 20 1 0 3.21 14 11 0 5 7-10 0 0 Schilling 13 6 2 3.49 85 90 1 33 16 66 10 0 Wakefield 12 6 7 3.92 82 70 0 36 35 49 7 0 Matsuzaka 13 7 5 4.52 85 85 1 43 27 85 9 0 Pineiro 22 1 0 4.81 24tt 28 0 13 12 11 3 0 Tavarez 11 3 4 5.25 60 64 0 35 23 39 7 0 Timlin 10 1 0 5.59 9 12 0 6 3 5 2 1 41 22 3.67 559 522 2 228 191 445 50 20 quently scored after an intentional walk to Ramirez on Drew's fly ball to center. Pedroia admitted that he'd lost some face, and that Youkilis already had let him know about it.

"When David hit that ball, it was like, 'Come on, A.C., you got to score on he said. "That was funny." Francona's revamped lineup paid dividends on the other end, too, as Julio Lugo, the leadoff man demoted to the No. 9 hole, doubled in the third and scored Boston's first run on a double by Youkilis. "We didn't do this for one game," Francona said. "I think the reasons were sound or we wouldn't have done this.

We're just doing what's right for the ball club. "But we scored two. If we lose, 10-2, you guys write, 'God, bad Drew, meanwhile, is starting to make the right moves. He had a breakout two-homer, seven-RBI game in Arizona Friday night, had three more hits the next night, and after failing to get the ball out of the infield three times against Cook, was able to loft one against Affeldt. "Their pitcher did a great job," Pedroia said.

"Every at-bat was tough. He was throwing his sinker down, and the umpire's zone was down. He just kept putting it there. I was just trying to find a way to get on." Drew mentioned he felt more comfortable, as a lifelong National Leaguer, spending the weekend in Arizona. But gradually, he said, he is settling in here.

"I Wnd of put it together a little bit in Oakland, had some good swings there, then carried it over to Arizona, and hopefully, we'll be right back to it here," he said. "You're searching, you try different things, you find it, and you hope it sticks around for a little while. "No matter where you're at LA was that way, Atlanta that way. In LA, after that first year we were acclimated, we knew everything. It's been a transition year; it will be the entire year.

But it starts to feel more comfortable each time." RED SOX Continued from Page Dl Aaron Cook and a double last night off Jeremy Affeldt, the former Kansas City Royals lefthander who had held Ortiz hitless in 12 at-bats until Ortiz got him last night. Ortiz is batting .403 in his last 17 games and has reached base safely 29 straight games, 34 of 35. "David took a beautiful swing," manager Terry Francona said. "It was a little weird. Coming off the bat, you couldn't tell if the right fielder had a bead on it or not." The outfielder, Brad Hawpe, had about as much chance of catching Ortiz's ball as the Rockies had of hitting Tim Wakefield, who came away with a win after Colorado had tied the score in the top of the eighth.

For the Rockies, making only their second trip to Fenway Park in a decade of interleague play, Wakefield's knuckleball was truly a foreign object. Only Todd Helton had ever stepped in against Wakefield, and that was for one at-bat. "But I don't care how many times someone has seen him, Wakefield was very good tonight," said Francona of the 40-year-old knuckleballer, who took a 1-0 lead into the eighth and had limited the Rockies to two hits and a walk until Hawpe doubled and scored on Yorvit Torrealba's two-out single to center. Jonathan Papelbon finished off the Rockies in the ninth, striking out two and looking scary while doing so. "He came in throwing BBs," said Dustin Pedroia, the rookie second baseman who in his first game as Sox leadoff man punched a single through the left side to start the winning rally.

Pedroia's campaign to convince people he's faster than Kevin Youkilis, however, suffered a blow when Francona lifted Pedroia for a pinch runner, Alex Cora. After Youkilis lined out to the track in center, Aaron Cook's last batter before Clint Hurdle replaced the sinkerballer with Affeldt, it was Cora who hustled to third on Ortiz's hit and subse SOX VS. OPPONENTS SOX RECORDS 10 12 4 18 6 3 2 4 Home 20 Away 21 Day 16 Night 25 One-run Two-run 7 Extra innings 1 Shutouts ..4 Sox Opp. Home runs 25 Home runs (away) 37 25 Stolen bases 36 37 Left on base 448 ..43 34 Double 59 67 Triple 0 0 Complete games- 2 1 Rockies statistics PITCHING W-L ERA Sv. IP SO Fuentes 0-0 2.15 18 29ft 20 Corpas 2-2 2.87 0 3lVi 25 Lopez 2-0 2.88 0 34ft 19 Affeldt 4-1 2.88 0 25 16 Martin 0-0 3.29 0 13 4 Francis 5-5 3.81 0 87ft 53 Cook.

4-3 4.37 0 92i 33 Hirsh 3-6 4.48 0 80ft 53 Fogg 1-5 5.06 0 58 37 Hawkins. 0-3 5.27 0 13 7 Buchholz 3-3 5.44 0 48 31 McClellan- 1-0 5.79 0 14 13 Julio 0-2 7.71 0 16ft 10 Total! 31-33 4.55 IS 577ft 344 BATTING Avg. AB HR RBI Holliday 346 260 35 90 10 46 Helton 326 221 28 72- 6 29 Spilborghs 326 43 5 14 2 12 Taveras 314 188 31 59 1 12 Matsui 311 106 20 33 1 14 Hawpe 297 195 29 58 8 38 Tulowitzki 261 226 30 59 3 27 Torrealba 236 140 8 33 2 20 Atkins 235 226 24 53 4 23 Baker 232 82 6 19 2 6 lannetta 200 95 10 19 1 11 Carroll 183 1C9 17 20 0 4 Totals .263 2198 269 S79 42 252 Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapesegbbe.com..