Tuesday night, Tim Wakefield will get another shot … this time cortisone-free.

He has been here before, a season ago, serving as the primary element separating the Red Sox from an unenviable 3-1 series deficit in the American League Championship Series. As he prepares this time around, the events which unfolded during and after the last opportunity are still fresh in the Red Sox’ pitcher’s mind …

It was Oct. 17, technically four years to the day he had walked off the Yankee Stadium mound having thrown the final pitch of the 2003 Red Sox season thanks to an Aaron Boone’s 11th-inning, history-making, homer.

This time Tim Wakefield’s stroll had a pain of a different kind, one that was shooting through his right shoulder following a gutsy 76-pitch effort in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Indians.

As Wakefield ventured through the downtown Cleveland mall that afternoon, he was frustrated. With the help of a pain-killing shot in his ailing pitching shoulder, the knuckleballer had made it through four scoreless innings before succumbing to a five-run fifth the night before. But it was the feeling of helplessness that his body delivered that was the true source of the anxiety.

“I told you guys that I was in so much pain that I couldn’t lift the covers off me after the ALDS game, and I was hoping to try to go to the trainers and get some treatment and get some massages and hopefully try to make it better by the time the World Series started, if we had made it,” recalled Wakefield during his press conference prior to Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

That plan didn’t work out. This time circumstances are different, and because of it Wakefield hopes the result follows suit.

Tuesday night Wakefield takes the mound against Tampa Bay starter Andy Sonnanstine, trying to be the impetus for the Red Sox to even up their best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

To set the scene: Wakefield is a pitcher who hasn’t pitched in 15 days, will be the oldest hurler to start an ALCS game (42 years, 73 days), and is facing a team which scored six runs in just 2 1/3 innings in their last meeting.

Still, there are reasons why this second act might have a happy ending for Wakefield.

For one, after an endless stream of difficulties against Wakefield, the Tampa Bay lineup switched things up against the Red Sox starter in their last showdown, exactly a month before this Game 4 get-together.

All of a sudden players like Akinori Iwamura and Carlos Pena were waiting Wakefield out, leading to Tampa Bay averaging four pitches per at-bat, a sharp increase from most of their previous meetings.

“Coming into the season he had so much success against them, eventually they were going to make some adjustments,” said Wakefield’s catcher, Kevin Cash. “We need to make our adjustments now. I think Wake knows they came out a little more patient and put themselves in better counts to hit, as opposed to (Monday night) when they came out swinging. They know what they’re doing. The best way to make them stop being patient is to get strike one.”

Wakefield has shown the ability to adapt, as well, as has been evidenced by his successes this season. His ERA at Fenway Park this year is a more than respectable 3.10, but it is a bit deeper where you will find the true separation from a year ago.

He has made better offerings when it comes to that all-important first pitch. This season opponents are managing a .272 batting average when putting the initial pitch in play, compared to .407 clip in 2007. Part of that, according to information supplied by Stats Inc., is that Wakefield is throwing his knuckleball at a higher rate on that first pitch.

Then there is the rest.

Four times he has pitched on six or more days rest this season, with slightly mixed results. His ERA for such occasions stands at 4.32, with his walks shrinking to six over 25 innings.

“When he has a fresher arm there’s definitely a difference,” Cash explained. “His arm will feel good, even though it doesn’t translate into velocity. It’s a feel thing. If I’m catching and my arm is hurting, mentally it affects you. And I think that’s what he has battled through. It wasn’t that he was throwing bad knuckleballs, it was just they weren’t finishing in the zone. They just kind of stayed flat.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re throwing 95 (mph) or you’re throwing 65. If your arm is aching it’s going to affect you. When his arm is good he has that finish. When you’re arm is tired you don’t have that finish.”

When it comes to trying to predict one of baseball’s most unpredictable pitchers, it’s all based on one big hypothesis. That’s all there is ... that and a pitcher who is ready to embrace a pain-free second chance.

“I really don’t have a concern,” he said. “I’ve been working hard with (pitching coach John Farrell) between the last time I threw, which was the last game of the season here. I threw a couple of sides, played a lot of flat groundwork during the ALDS and have thrown two sides since then. So, I feel I’m ready to go.”