By the end, Tim Wakefield was just glad his team won.
The knuckleballer came within three outs of pitching the Boston Red Sox's second no-hitter this season, losing his bid on Randy Winn's broken-bat single in the ninth inning Tuesday night as the Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-4, at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Wakefield, who twice flirted with no-hitters for Boston in 1995, was trying to duplicate the feat of Hideo Nomo, who held the Baltimore Orioles hitless on April 4.
"I'm not disappointed I gave up the hit. I'm more mentally and emotionally drained right now to take a no-hitter into the ninth," the 34-year-old right-hander said.
"It was a knuckleball, and I thought it was a pretty good pitch. He just hit it off the end and broke his bat. It's one of those things that it just happened to fall in."
After Wakefield (5-1) walked Andy Sheets with two outs in the eighth, left fielder Troy O'Leary made a sliding catch on Damian Rolls' blooper to end the inning.
In the ninth, speedy Jason Tyner led off with a slow bouncer that second baseman Jose Offerman charged. Offerman's hurried toss was high and pulled first baseman Brian Daubach off the bag.
Official scorer Jim Ferguson reviewed it on the replay and ruled it an error on Offerman. The crowd of 12,950 cheered when the ruling was posted on the scoreboard.
"As I saw it, the throw clearly beat the runner and the umpire ruled that the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag," Ferguson said. "That makes it an error, not a hit. The replay showed the ball clearly got there before Tyner."
But Winn then broke up the no-hitter, lining a 1-and-2 pitch over third baseman Chris Stynes for a clean single. Tyner, who had advanced on a passed ball, scored on the hit.
"He threw a knuckleball, a pitch that was working for him all night," Winn said. "It was up, down, in, out. It was moving all over the place. I was just lucky to flip it into left."
Wakefield retired Greg Vaughn on a fly ball before walking Fred McGriff. That was all for Wakefield, who struck out eight and walked four in only his sixth start of the season.
Reliever Derek Lowe held on for his 11th save, giving up Aubrey Huff's RBI single and pinch-hitter Steve Cox's two-run double that came within a couple of feet of clearing the center-field wall for what would have been a tying homer.
"I thought it was out of here," Wakefield said of Cox's hit. "Luckily, it hit the top of the wall."
