Salvage team

TORONTO -- This day probably won't be enough to blot out Matt Clement's brutal association with these Blue Jays (he entered 0-3 with a 9.45 ERA and allowed three runs, two earned, over 5 1/3 innings). But, as Clement later pointed out, ''Anything would have been better than what was in the past." And, for his team, anything would have been better than what played out over the two preceding days -- a crushing 12-inning loss in which the Red Sox coughed up a four-run lead, and a seven-run blowout loss in a game over almost as soon as it began.

So, yesterday's 6-3 win, one in which Clement received a ''W" that belonged equally to Keith Foulke, who pitched more like the ghost of Foulke past than the incarnation of Foulke present, was a step. A step for Clement toward taming a team he's destined to see several times over the balance of this season and next. And a step for the Sox, who needed a win to avoid a fourth consecutive loss entering today's day off.

''12-7 is a hell of a lot better than 11-8," Terry Francona said of his club's record. ''We kind of had a tough [couple days], got knocked around [Saturday], and Friday night was a tough loss. This is good for us because we have a long road trip."

The 10-day, nine-game road show rolls into Cleveland tomorrow, but the Sox can relax today and be grateful to have pulled out a win in this three-game set despite going 4 for 15 yesterday with runners in scoring position and 0 for 2 with the bases loaded (that added up to 14 men left on base, tying a season high).

They managed the win for two reasons above all others: One wears No. 34 and hits third. The other is the bullpen, which worked 13 innings this weekend but saved its best for last; Foulke, Mike Timlin, and Jonathan Papelbon laced together 3 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out six, walking none, and allowing just three hits, all singles, after Clement departed.

''Matt did a pretty good job," catcher Jason Varitek said. ''He was better early than he was late. He kind of lost his release point."

Clement entered having allowed 25 hits and 14 runs in 18 innings. But, by the time he climbed the mound yesterday he was ahead, 3-0, thanks to a combination of his team's offense and an underwhelming Josh Towers (0-4, 8.35 ERA).

Towers's fifth pitch of the day hit Kevin Youkilis on the elbow. With one out, David Ortiz jumped on the first thing he saw, hammering an 86 m.p.h. fastball over the fence in left-center. Towers then broke Manny Ramírez's bat in half, but Ramírez fought it off for a single. The ball landed in center field, his bat barrel near shortstop. Ramírez blithely tossed the handle aside, advanced to second on Trot Nixon's single, and came around to score on Mike Lowell's two-out single to left. Ramírez, in a way only he could, neared home for what was a close play but didn't slide. Instead, he merely scampered across the plate and into the dugout, smiling.

Willie Harris (1 for 10 on the season) helped create a run in the fourth. After Towers plunked him in the rear, Harris stole second and scored for a 4-0 lead on Youkilis's two-out RBI single.

Clement, meanwhile, had been minimizing damage for three innings (one single per inning), with a little help. Lowell, in the third, charged an Aaron Hill chopper, fielded it with his bare hand, and cut down Hill.

But Lowell airmailed Youkilis by a good 50 feet to begin the Toronto fourth, allowing Vernon Wells to reach. Clement, with one out, walked Lyle Overbay. Gregg Zaun, up next, got an 89 m.p.h. fastball, and made it disappear over the wall in right, 407 feet away, pulling Toronto within a run (4-3).

Clement's next crucial juncture also would pit him against Zaun. In the fifth, Frank Catalanotto singled to center with one out. Clement hit Wells on the shoulder with a fastball. He fanned Troy Glaus with an appetizing slider that hung in the zone for a split second longer than usual, before disappearing into the abyss of Varitek's glove. But he then walked Overbay, bringing Zaun up with the bases full.

Clement worked ahead of Zaun 0-and-2, fell to 2-and-2, and left one up and over the plate. And Zaun crushed it. Fortunately, Nixon (''as overlooked a defensive outfielder as there is in baseball," a grateful Clement said) was on his way to running it down, at the 375-foot sign in right-center.

''If we run into problems there we have problems because they were working Matt," Francona said. ''Fortunately that ball stayed in for us."

Clement went out for the sixth but gave up two quick hits while recording just one out and was lifted, with the top of Toronto's order coming up. Francona called upon Foulke, who could not have been better. He needed only six pitches to get out of the inning, fanning Russ Adams swinging at an 88 m.p.h. fastball before popping up Catalanotto.

Asked if those were the two biggest outs of the game, Francona said, ''Oh yeah."

To begin the seventh Foulke caught Wells (.389, 7 HRs, 18 RBIs), who Clement called ''as hot a hitter as there is in baseball," gazing at a knee-high fastball. He then set up Glaus, reaching back not for his best fastball but for guile. He threw a slider that Glaus fouled back, a fastball that he fouled back, then a 79 m.p.h. splitter that zipped underneath his bat. Foulke ended the inning by popping up Overbay.

''If he's going to throw like that it gives us a huge weapon, because he handles lefties so well," Francona said. ''Whether it's the sixth or the 10th [inning], I think I have a huge amount of confidence in him."

The Sox scored in the eighth when Alex Gonzalez (2 for 4) walked and advanced to third on a perfectly executed hit and run, with Youkilis grounding to the hole vacated by the shortstop. Mark Loretta's second hit in 15 at-bats in the series plated Gonzalez for a 5-3 advantage. It reached 6-3 in the ninth, on Lowell's RBI double.

Timlin worked a scoreless eighth, setting up for Papelbon. Adams and Catalanotto singled with no outs in the ninth. But Papelbon fanned Wells on a fastball down and away. Glaus, who went up hacking, took a big rip at a hittable fastball and fouled it back. He looked upset with himself, and he would have real reason to be moments later. He bounced the next pitch to Gonzalez for a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

The save gave Papelbon a major league-leading eight.

''Our bullpen came in, and from Foulke to Timlin to Papelbon did a great job against a good lineup," Francona said. ''Foulke was outstanding."

A good statement with which to be able to end a bad weekend.