This rubs us the wrong way

By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 8/20/2003

Somebody get these people a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

It was right there in last Friday's edition. Stan's Rodeo Ointment might have saved Derek Lowe and the Boston Red Sox last night.

I wouldn't make this up. What happened last night at Fenway was serious business. Derek Lowe was vaporizing the Oakland A's in his most important start of the season. After six innings he had allowed two hits -- one a softy that landed in front of Manny Ramirez and the other an infield dribbler -- and Grady Little was thinking that rarest of modern managerial thoughts.

"By the way he was throwing those first six innings, I thought we were looking at nine innings from the guy," Grady declared.

So imagine Grady's reaction when he discovered, with no warning, that his starting pitcher was done for the evening because of a recurrent problem: a blister on Lowe's right thumb.

"Derek has that pop on him every once in a while," Little explained. "Until he just can't go, we are not totally aware of it each inning and each minute. But we do know he has it, he's had it, and when they come out and said he couldn't go, he can't go, and that is it."

Oh, that was it, all right. All it took for a 2-0 lead to become a 3-2 defeat were two walks by Scott Sauerbeck and a Ramon Hernandez three-run homer served up by Scott Williamson. "They've had better days," Little observed.

But Lowe hasn't. Way back on April 13 he held the Orioles to five hits and no runs in seven innings, but last night was his absolute 2003 piece de resistance. In those six innings last night he was the guy who pitched a no-hitter and won 21 games last season, and then some.

The Red Sox have waited all season for this Derek Lowe to make an appearance, and here he was, doing it in a very important game with the wild-card lead at stake. "That was as good as he's been since I've been here," said pitching coach Dave Wallace. "He was different than I've seen him. He was confident. He was all those things you think about."

And who knows? If the Red Sox had a jar of Stan's Rodeo Ointment handy, Lowe might have gone nine innings and they might be a game ahead this morning in that wild-card race rather than a frustrating game behind.

So what is Stan's Rodeo Ointment? As reported in the Journal, Stan Johnston is the head trainer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In his former life he was a rodeo performer and he knew all about blisters. In this life he has dealt with pitchers who have been plagued with blisters, and he has come up with an ointment that has had a lot of success in alleviating the problem. The formula is a secret, but we know it has something to do with tincture of benzine and Bag Balm, a product not unknown in these here parts.

Lowe was even cited in the article as a blister victim. Left unsaid was whether or not he was a client. Judging from last night's unfortunate developments, he most likely is not.

You cannot exaggerate how dominating he was last night. The A's really had no chance, and they knew it. Discovering that Lowe was out and someone else was in was an equivalent of that 11th-hour state prison phone call from the governor.

"It was kind of a relief," said left fielder Terrence Long, who had grounded out three times. "His sinker today was the best I've ever seen from him. He pitched well at our place, but his sinker tonight was really moving. No disrespect to the other guys, but when a guy's pitching well, and you look up and see him out of there, it's like, `Man, let's get something going.' "

They never had anything going against Lowe; that's for sure.

"His ball had a lot of life," Little said. "There were a lot of ground balls, and we were making the plays. Things were going as smoothly as it has all season."

"He was real aggressive," said Wallace. "His whole demeanor was different. You could see it in his face and his body language. It was all there -- his slider, his cutter, his sinker."

After six innings he had thrown an economical 78 pitches. He had struck out three and walked none, and he was coming off a sixth inning that had gone 1-3, 4-3, and pop to second. The team had a 2-0 lead and the crowd of 34,879 was in a festive mood.

The skipper was blind-sided, saying Lowe had said nothing to him about a blister problem. The big righthander would later say that the blister had cropped up in the second inning, and after six he just didn't think he could go anymore.

"I mean, it's hard to explain," he said. "It's to the point where you really can't throw effective, and you have to look down the line, you want to pitch every five days."

Lowe was in no mood to dissect his magnificent performance. Listening to his quasi whisper, you'd have thought he had given up 10 earned runs.

"At this stage of the season, individual efforts are meaningless," he shrugged.

"Unless you win the game. The bottom line is, did you win or did you fall short?"

What matters now is doing something about that damnable blister. If Derek Lowe is going to pitch like that, well, you can fill in the blank yourself. But neither Lowe nor Little wants a repeat of last night's hugely disappointing events. Lowe was very possibly pitching the Red Sox Game of the Year, Pedro included, but it was victory interruptus because of that blister.

Someone's got to get on the phone.

Ring up Stan Johnston for some of his miracle rodeo ointment. Ring up Nolan Ryan down there in Alvin, Texas, and see if he has any of that pickle brine he made so famous in the late '70s. At least slap on some Bag Balm. But do something. This blister talk is unacceptable.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.