Wake has now made 384 starts, and while I haven’t seen them all, I can’t ever remember his knuckleball moving like it was last night. Imagine an nerdy 12 year old who suddenly thinks he’s the next Fred Astaire after watching “You Got Served” trying to dance to hip-hop. That’s how Wake’s knuckleball moved.

By some miracle, a number of the A’s batters were still able to put the ball in play against Wake. From the 2nd inning on Wake was always working out of trouble, and amazingly, he always escaped. After he allowed a run in the 2nd, the A’s had 1st and 3rd with no outs and he stranded both runners. In the 3rd he worked out of a 2nd and 3rd, one out jam. In the 4th the A’s had runners on the corners with one out and again Wake didn’t give up a run. Shakey Wakey turned into Timmeh Houdini.

I guess Paps didn’t want to make Wake feel out of place before his first all-star appearance, since he pulled a Houdini act of his own. Giving up a run, putting the tying run at second and making everybody in the ballpark except Tacoby think that you just gave up a 3-run homer is not what I’d generally call “all-star material.” As Harry Houdini once said “many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business.” Replace “wonderful” with “nerve-racking”, and I think that is becoming the truth with Paps.