G4: Rangers 2, Red Sox 0

The Red Sox couldn't do a thing with Robinson Tejeda. Even though the Ranger starter kept the ball up in the zone, he was also effective at jamming the Boston hitters. The sad result? Sixteen fly ballouts -- most of them popups -- in seven innings.

Hits: JD Drew's line drive off Tejeda in the second that 3B Hank Blalock had no play on; Coco Crisp's double to deep left in the fifth; and Manny Ramirez's line drive opposite field single to right leading off the ninth. ... Only two runners reached second base, no one got to third.

Beef: With two outs in the top of the seventh, Crisp walked. Why didn't Terry Francona pinch-hit for Doug Mirabelli? It turned out that Wakefield was being pulled anyway and Okajima started the home half of the seventh. Why not send up a major league hitter in that spot and have Varitek catch the final two or three innings?

The Rangers managed only three hits of their own (and have a total of only 18 in four games), but were able -- with the help of a walk and a fielding error from Dustin Pedroia -- to score single runs in each of the first two innings. Two of their hits came in the first, with Sammy Sosa getting an RBI on a check swing blooper that fell into right field. Gerald Laird's single scored the second run. Tim Wakefield, Hideki Okajima and Kyle Snyder held Texas hitless after the second inning.

Tejeda was pulled after only 77 pitches (7-2-0-3-1), but Joaquin Benoit and Akinori Otsuka were equally effective. Or Boston was equally lame at the plate. Either way ...

***

Tim Wakefield / Robinson Tejeda, 2 PM

Wakefield had a 7-11 record last year. In those 11 losses, Boston scored a total of only six runs while he was in the game. ... Frank Catalanotto is 15-for-45 with three home runs against Wakefield.

Tejeda's 2006 ERA was 4.28, the lowest for any Rangers starter with at least 14 starts. In his final nine starts last year, he had a 2.32 ERA.