Relieved Foulke now focuses on his health

General manager Theo Epstein said he would probably receive today the date of Keith Foulke's right knee surgery and the rehabilitation schedule, after Dr. Thomas Gill and Foulke met last night to discuss the closer's medical future.

''We should have all the details," Epstein said. ''I know they spoke, but I don't know what was said yet."

Foulke returned yesterday from Phoenix, where he had a second opinion on his right knee, while also getting his surgically repaired left knee inspected.

''[The right knee] doesn't bother me nearly as much as the left one did," said Foulke. ''It's just going to take a couple of months for [the left knee] to heal. We just have to give it rest for a month or so."

Foulke, looking like the weight of the world was off his shoulders, looked back on his surgery and talked about what's ahead.

''Coming back, we got to where we were improving, but then we got to a point where the knee stopped feeling better and started feeling worse," he said. ''The thing that kind of brought the red flag is the fact that my shoulder started bothering me . . . It's not like I was pitching well and there was also a possibility I wasn't really going to help the team down the stretch anyways. Throw one day and take three days off to recoup."

Foulke was asked about the status of his shoulder.

''It's fine, it's sore," he said. ''I probably just strained something."

Foulke played catch with a football in the outfield yesterday to test his right arm.

''I didn't really push it that much," he said. ''It was tight, but that sensation kind of in the back of the shoulder wasn't there."

Foulke said he reached the point where he was altering his mechanics to accommodate the sore shoulder.

''I was trying to shorten my stride up mechanically and when you start taking the lower body out of it, you start putting a lot more strain [on the shoulder]," he said.

Asked about the feeling of not being able to contribute Foulke just shrugged and said bluntly, ''It sucks. It's just miserable.

''It's nice to see the guys, but they're all getting ready and I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs. It's depressing is what it is."

While it's unlikely Foulke will hang with his team for the postseason, he did leave the door slightly open.

''It depends on when I have surgery. It's almost harder being here and not being able to do anything than it is sitting somewhere else," he said. ''It's kind of a funny thing. Hopefully we have a lot of celebrations this year, but you kind of feel awkward not being a part of it, trying to be a part of the celebration."

Optimistic approach

Matt Clement, coming off a six-inning, six-walk scoreless outing Sept. 24 at Baltimore, was upbeat about how he's been throwing of late.

''I felt great the last time. I had good movement late and it was the best I felt in a long time," he said. ''The six walks? I wasn't overly worried about it. If someone had got a big hit and three or four of them scored, I would have felt differently, but if I throw the ball like that and I'm aggressive, I'm going to have a lot more fun and more success.

''I don't want to have six walks ever. But you can have three walks and give up four hits. Which way are you going to have more success? I don't know. When I'm more aggressive I'm a better pitcher."

DiNardo puts in time

Lenny DiNardo strung together four scoreless innings, the longest relief effort of his career in 28 relief appearances. His previous long was three innings May 1, 2004. It was also the second-longest relief outing by a Red Sox reliever this season. John Halama pitched 4 1/3 innings May 30 in Baltimore . . . As of Monday, David Ortiz was about 20,000 votes ahead of Alex Rodriguez for the 2005 Hank Aaron Award, in recognition of offensive excellence. Fans have until 11:59 p.m. tomorrow to cast their ballot on MLB.com . . . Ortiz's RBI single in the fifth gave him 144 RBIs for the season, tying him for fifth place in Sox history with Walt Dropo and Vern Stephens, who both did it in 1950 . . . Sox special assignment instructor Luis Tiant was still fuming over exclusion in the Black Aces Club started by former major leaguer Jim ''Mudcat" Grant. A book is being done on the former African-American 20-game winners. Tiant, despite his Cuban ancestry, considers himself black, and he went through all of the same horrible racial issues black players went through in the 1950s and 1960s. ''I'm done talking about it," Tiant said. ''I'm so mad about it. I'm black. The color of my skin is black. I just can't believe we don't count. I can't believe they don't see that we went through all of those things where people called us the most horrible names and made us feel like we were animals." . . . Kevin Youkilis, recovering from a fractured right index finger, was scheduled to take batting practice last night . . . Mike Timlin was chosen the BoSox Club Man of the Year. The award has been given out since 1967 when Rico Petrocelli was the first recipient. It was given to Timlin for his contributions to the Red Sox and for his community endeavors. The Sox closer donates $500 for every mound appearance to the Angel Fund for ALS research . . . Toronto lefthander Scott Schoeneweis, a cancer survivor, is a cousin of Red Sox senior adviser Jeremy Kapstein. Schoeneweis was a free agent last season, but the Red Sox passed because they had Alan Embree . . . The White Sox won coin flips yesterday and would host the Red Sox or Yankees if Chicago finishes with the same record as the AL East second-place team and a playoff is needed to determine the wild-card winner. Baseball conducted other coin flips Sept. 12 and last Friday, and added the White Sox to the wild-card possibilities as Cleveland drew closer to Chicago in the AL Central.