Wakefield on D&C: 'Chalk it up to an off year'

Former Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield joined Dennis & Callahan on Wednesday morning to discuss the struggles of his old team.

"It's one of those years where just nothing's gone right at all," said Wakefield, who retired prior to the season. "It started off with injuries. You look at the lineup, one through five, they never had the one through five guys they wanted, from [Jacoby] Ellsbury down to David Ortiz, [Carl] Crawford -- everybody's been hurt all year. So, it's kind of been tough to have any kind of solidity in that lineup."

Added Wakefield: "They didn't play very good baseball, obviously. But they just couldn't get things rolling this year."

Asked about Bobby Valentine, the part-time NESN analyst questioned a recent comment the manager made.

"The thing that kind of through me for a loop -- and I was up there doing the games this weekend -- is that he said something in an interview that [on] the last road trip on the West Coast that they played up to their talent. As a player, if I hear that, that's kind of like a slap in the face," Wakefield said. "I didn't get what he was saying. But if you hear that, it's not a very good thing."

Wakefield had no answer as to why starting pitcher Jon Lester has struggled so much this season.

"Just chalk it up to an off year," Wakefield said. "Lester pitched pretty good last night, and I'm proud that he was able to break Bruce Hurst's record and become the all-time strikeout leader for a lefty in Red Sox history, so that's a pretty good thing. But it could be mechanically, it could be mental. Who knows what it could be? I've had bad years where I just couldn't figure it out. You kind of might know what you're doing wrong but you can't fix it."

The 46-year-old Wakefield, who will be in town on Tuesday for the Boston premiere of the documentary movie "Knuckleball," mentioned that he can still throw an effective knuckleball, but, "Nobody called me this summer."

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/redsox.