For Foulke, a scorcher

ARLINGTON, Texas -- This was the place, last July 4, where it all came to an end for Keith Foulke, who entered that night with a 5-4 ninth-inning lead and quickly recorded an out. But then Michael Young tripled. Mark Teixeira doubled. Hank Blalock walked. And Foulke, ahead 0 and 2 to Alfonso Soriano, plunked him. Kevin Mench hit the next pitch to right to win it.

The next day Foulke returned to Boston for MRIs on his knees, soon had arthroscopic surgery, and pitched only six more times, all in September, never again as closer. Yesterday, with a 7-2 lead in the ninth, the bullpen door swung open for Foulke, who, as manager Terry Francona put it, ''was able to come in with a little wiggle room, which is good."

It was especially good after Foulke allowed scorched one-out hits to Blalock (single) and Mench (double), both on 88 mile-per-hour fastballs. A run then scored on Laynce Nix's 390-foot sacrifice fly to center that a leaping Coco Crisp somehow hauled in.

''I'd prefer not to give up a couple well-hit balls like that," Foulke said. ''Location wasn't as good today as it should be. Whatever. We won the ballgame. I'm not going to choke myself over this. Outfielders got their sprints in, so I feel I helped the team."

Foulke said that had he been ahead by only one run, he'd have thrown far more changeups and nibbled more.

''With a one-run lead, I'm not going to throw that many fastballs," he said. ''My location was a little soft today. I was going to throw it up there to let them swing the bats and try to get my outs as quick as I can."

Sheila Papelbon, sitting outside the Sox clubhouse yesterday afternoon waiting for her son, Jonathan, mentioned his longtime admiration for Roger Clemens. She lowered a hand to about knee level, and said, ''He's liked Roger since he was this big."

At age 25, in a hotel lobby Sunday night, Papelbon finally met the 22-year veteran.

''I didn't know he knew who I was," Papelbon said. ''Meeting a lifetime idol is pretty neat, man, pretty neat. I shook his hand. He had a death grip. I wanted to tell him, 'Pretty good handshake there.' "

Papelbon, on the topic of Clemens's possible return to Boston: ''I don't really know all the in-depth details. I had a good feeling he'd like to end his career in a Red Sox uniform. Just the feeling I got. It's too early to see. I don't want to jinx that."

Could he handle taking the ball from Clemens in say the seventh or eighth inning, with a one-run lead to maintain?

''Getting the ball from Roger and going out there and shutting it out and preserving a win for him, woo, that would be pretty neat," Papelbon said.

Mark Loretta became the 12th second baseman to start for the Red Sox on Opening Day since 1994. The previous 11: Scott Fletcher, Luis Alicea, Wil Cordero, John Valentin, Donnie Sadler, Jeff Frye, Jose Offerman, Chris Stynes, Rey Sanchez, Todd Walker, and Mark Bellhorn . . . Jason Varitek became the first Sox catcher to start seven Opening Days, which he has done consecutively. The only Sox catchers to start six: Sammy White (1953-57, '59) and Rich Gedman ('83-86, '88-89) . . . Six of the nine players in yesterday's lineup did not start on Opening Day 2005 for the Sox: CF Coco Crisp, RF Trot Nixon (Jay Payton started last April 3 against lefthander Randy Johnson), 3B Mike Lowell, SS Alex Gonzalez, 2B Loretta, and 1B Kevin Youkilis . . . Of the 27 players who opened the season with the Sox or on the DL, 12 are new to the organization. Of those 27, 22 have been acquired since Theo Epstein became GM on Nov. 25, 2002. The five holdovers include four starters: Nixon, Manny Ramírez, Varitek, and Youkilis. The other: today's starting pitcher, Tim Wakefield. Papelbon became the first Epstein draft pick to make an Opening Day roster . . . With 22 Opening Day starts, Carl Yastrzemski appears to have one of the team's unbreakable records . . . Every Sox starter had a hit except for Youkilis.

Gonzalez bizarrely got doubled off second base in the seventh inning. He was on second and Crisp on first with no outs and the Sox ahead, 5-2. Loretta hit a fly ball to shallow center and Gonzalez took about a 20-foot lead. He started to break for third, then stopped to turn back, but much too late. ''He read it good, he was where he was supposed to be," Francona said. ''The last 15-20 feet he thought it was dropping. I didn't think the center fielder deked him, but he looked like he thought it was going to drop all of a sudden." . . . Curt Schilling, who began yesterday with 2,832 strikeouts, tied with Mickey Lolich for 16th all time, fanned five to assume 16th all by himself. He also improved to 3-0 with a 2.93 ERA in six Opening Day starts, the last of which came with Philadelphia in 1999. He'd also never pitched at Ameriquest Field, which became the 43d park in which he's pitched . . . The crowd of 51,541 was the largest ever at Ameriquest. The previous high was 50,920 for the 1995 All-Star Game . . . Francona believes the Sox are in line to face Daniel Cabrera, Bruce Chen, and Rodrigo Lopez in Baltimore this weekend. The matchups, if that holds: Cabrera vs. Matt Clement, Chen vs. Schilling, and Lopez vs. Wakefield.