BOSTON - Historic moments impact people in different ways, a fact Chase Wright, Mike Lowell, and a 76-year-old man from Tennessee found out last night.
The history-making instance this time came when the Yankees' rookie starter, Wright, became just the second pitcher in Major League history to allow four straight home runs. The feat was accomplished with two outs in the third inning when Boston's Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Lowell, and Jason Varitek all went deep.
In 10 pitches the Red Sox had gone from a 3-0 deficit to a 4-3 lead. It was that momentum that helped lead Boston to a 7-6 victory and the first series sweep of the Yanks at Fenway in 17 seasons.
As the sellout crowd was reveling in the achievement - which has now been accomplished five times in big league history - Paul Foytack, the only other pitcher to experience what Wright went through, was stumped.
"Can I ask you something?" said the veteran of 11 Major League seasons (1953-64), who had just switched his television viewing away from the NBA playoffs to the baseball game in time to see Ramirez's shot over the left field wall. "Why do they let (Ramirez) dress that way? I don't understand that."
But once the topic of Ramirez's wardrobe was exhausted, Foytack turned to the matter at hand - the second game of a doubleheader between the Cleveland Indians and the Foytack's Los Angeles Angels on July 31, 1963 in which he suffered through consecutive homers off the bats of Woodie Held, pitcher Pedro Ramos, Tito Francona, father of Red Sox manager Terry Francona, and Larry Brown.
"I can't even have that record," said Foytack, who said he would be sending a letter of encouragement to Wright. "I remember that day. The manager came out after the fourth home run and said, 'What do you think Paul?' I told him I wasn't in any kind of trouble because there wasn't anybody on base.
"I was known for giving up the long ball (176 homers over 11 seasons). I put a lot of guys in the Hall of Fame ... I could probably throw through a two-foot thick wall if I could hit the wall. I could throw that hard."
Besides the connection to the Sox manager's dad (who hit the right field foul pole during the Indians' barrage), Foytack also presented a few other coincidental connections. Three days before pitching the 12/3 innings against the Indians, he had gone seven frames at Fenway Park against a Red Sox team which boasted a leadoff hitter by the name of (Chuck) Schilling. He also was a former teammate of Johnny Pesky, and actually played one year in the homeland of Boston's starting pitcher last night, Daisuke Matsuzaka.
"When I came back (from Japan) I told people, 'You're going to see Japanese players in the major leagues,' and they all laughed at me," said Foytack, who played for the Chunichi Dragons. "They were that good."
As for Lowell, the home run was just the introduction to the second wave of heroics. With two on in the seventh inning and the Red Sox trailing by a run, the Sox third baseman launched his second homer of the game to give Boston the lead for good.
It was the 12th multiple home run game of Lowell's career, and marked the third anniversary of his ninth-inning, game-winning, two-run shot for the Florida Marlins against the Phillies. Evidently, April 22 is kind for Lowell, who now has 53 go-ahead homers in his 10 big league seasons.
"I had no idea how many times it has happened, although I can't imagine it happens too often. I just remember the Dodgers did last year with some home runs in the ninth inning," said Lowell, referencing Los Angeles' Sept. 18 comeback last year when Jeff Kent, Drew, Russell Martin, and Marlon Anderson accomplished the feat.
"Usually four straight hitters don't square off for base hits, let alone home runs. That's a big momentum shift right there."
The bug play
Besides the home runs, perhaps the biggest play of the game came from Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia.
With two outs in the eighth inning, and the bases loaded with Yankees, New York's Josh Phelps rifled a line-drive up the middle off of Sox reliever Brendan Donnelly. With the Sox holding a one-run lead a hit would have given the visitors the lead. But Pedroia dove to his right and stared the liner to end the inning and the threat.
"I got a really good jump on it, but it was hit hard," said Pedroia, who broke an 0-for-13 slump with two hits. "I was shocked it stayed in the glove. It was smoked. When I caught it I squeezed it as hard as I could. I didn't want it popping out of my glove. I wanted to do anything possible to catch that ball."
