Homestretch for Pena

Carlos Pena was all hellos, handshakes, and hugs before facing the Red Sox last night at Fenway Park. Leaning over the waist-high wall by the visitors' dugout, he greeted friends and family members. All the early arrivals seemed to have some connection to the Detroit Tigers' first baseman through either his hometown of Haverhill or his alma mater, Northeastern.

The local boy made good could not have picked a better time for a return trip to Boston. He is playing his best ball of the year, arriving in town with a season-high 11-game hitting streak. On Tuesday against the White Sox, he hit his second grand slam of the season.

Pena attributed his recent stretch of solid offense to the guidance of hitting coach Bruce Fields.

"It's a mental thing," said Pena. "People say, `Oh, you think too much.' It has nothing to do with that. It's about thinking the right things and being rational about situations, instead of letting your emotions take over. That's the only way you can be consistent, if you can keep your emotions under control.

"If you have a bad game, understand why you had a bad game instead of acting out of frustration.

"Things like that [make] the great hitters that we see here --Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz. These guys have learned how to keep their mental approach consistent, then that translates into consistency."

In his last 18 games entering the Tigers' four-game series against the Red Sox, Pena went 23 for 64 (.359) with 19 runs, 5 doubles, 6 home runs, 16 RBIs, and 12 walks. He hit safely in 16 of those games and reached base in all 18.

In his quest for consistent production, Pena hoped his numbers would continue to climb in familiar surroundings.

"I saw all my friends and my family here," said Pena. "It's amazing to come back home and spend some time with them. I'm always happy every time I come back to Boston. First of all, it's Boston. It's where I went to school. It's where I used to live. I have a lot of good friends here. But Fenway Park is Fenway Park. I don't care where you're from, you want to play here."

Fenway Park was not that friendly last night for Pena as his hitting streak ended in the Tigers' 4-1 loss. He went 0 for 4, striking out looking at a Keith Foulke pitch to end the game.

But he did make solid contributions on defense, including an impressive assist in the third inning. Pena dived to his right and fully extended himself to snag a hard-hit ball by Ortiz. Pena tossed the ball to pitcher Jason Johnson for the out. The loss dropped the Tigers to 60-67 as they fall farther behind in the race for an American League playoff berth (the Tigers are 13 1/2 games behind the Sox in the wild-card race).

But Pena remains optimistic.

"We have a very good team right now and I think we're competing," said Pena. "To us, it's very important to finish up strong. We have still a month to go and a couple of days. We want to finish strong for ourselves. It would be great to finish over .500. I think that's very attainable.

"I think we're moving in the right direction and I want to be part of it. But there's only one thing I can do and that's to keep on trying to improve and be patient with myself and keep a level head and keep my feet on the ground and we'll see where things take me."