Cleveland ? Casey Blake hit Tim Wakefield’s pitch over the left-field fence – eerily similar to the drive Aaron Boone hit exactly four years earlier.

Another playoff loss for Wakefield and the Red Sox.

Instead of sending Josh Beckett to the mound on short rest, Boston manager Terry Francona gave Wakefield the ball after 16 days off. The result was a 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night that left the Red Sox down 3-1 in the AL championship series.

Wakefield allowed just one hit in the first four innings, serving up a knuckleball that ranged from 60 to 69 mph and darted all over.

Then came the fifth.

The seven-run fifth.

Why Wakefield?

“I can’t believe somebody asked me that question,” Francona said before the game. “What we considered was trying to put our ballclub in the best position to win the series, and there’s a lot of different reasons why we feel like that.”

To change the rotation “regardless of what the games are, doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

Besides, Wakefield was throwing the ball well – even in the fifth when he gave up three runs before reliever Manny Delcarmen allowed two inherited runners to score on Jhonny Peralta’s three-run homer.

“Physically, I felt fine,” Wakefield said. “I felt like the ball was moving good. (Blake’s) homer was really the only ball that I thought they squared up that inning.”

Beckett was at his best back in 2003, when he started Game 6 of the World Series on three days’ rest and pitched a five-hit shutout to finish the Florida Marlins’ World Series win over the New York Yankees.

Beckett pitched another shutout to beat the Los Angeles Angels in Boston’s playoff opener this year and then won Game 1 against the Indians.

But Francona held him back for Game 5.

“We wouldn’t be where we’re at without Tim Wakefield,” Beckett said.

Wakefield, who lost Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees on Boone’s 11th-inning homer, went 17-12 during the regular season.