by By JOHN TOMASE , The Boston Herald

He may miss the squad by a foot.

That's how close Nick Green came to a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning against the Mariners. Making matters worse, the game-tying double left an opening and the Mariners pounced in the 11th for a 7-6 victory.

The winning rally came off of reliever Ramon Ramirez, who allowed the go-ahead two-run double to Rob Johnson.

The Sox did make it interesting in the bottom of the 11th. With two outs, George Kottaras blasted a solo homer over the visiting bullpen in right to cut the deficit to one. J.D. Drew then singled off reliever Mark Lowe to keep hope alive, but Dustin Pedroia grouned sharply to third for a 5-4 force out to end it.

The M's rally took the focus away from Wakefield, who passed Roger Clemens for first place on the Red Sox all-time starts list and was aiming for a league-leading 11th win that would have made him a strong All-Star contender.

For three innings that bid looked like it had a chance to become reality.

The opportunistic Red Sox offense struck for two runs in the first against Seattle ace Felix Hernandez - no easy task these days - staking the 42-year-old knuckleballer to a lead. Wakefield scattered a couple of doubles, but only allowed one run.

Then came a three-run fourth that left Wakefield's All-Star chances hanging by a thread.

The Red Sox gave him some runs to work with in the first when Dustin Pedroia beat out an infield single, David Ortiz walked and Jason Bay broke an 0-for-17 slump with an RBI ground-rule double. Ortiz then scored on a wild pitch.

The runs were key, because they gave Wakefield a chance to be the real feel-good story of the night.

By the end of the night, he appeared to be a longshot at best. The Red Sox gave him every opportunity to win, sending him back out for the eighth despite the fact that he had already thrown 94 pitches.

They even chipped away at Hernandez' 4-2 lead, with J.D. Drew blasting a home run into the center field bleachers one batter after George Kottaras nearly put one in the bullpen in the seventh.

But Mariners second baseman Jose Lopez delivered what looked like the knockout blow when he ripped a home run into the Monster seats leading off the eighth, pushing the M's lead to 5-3. It came on a 1-2 pitch and let most of the air out of the park.

But Green was a hero again, his two-run double off the very top of the Monster tying the game at 5-5 in the eighth.

Wakefield had at least already made history. His 383rd start in a Red Sox uniform moved him past Clemens for first place in team history. He was hoping to move one victory closer to Clemens' total of 192, but that wasn't to be.

- jtomase@bostonherald.com

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