Sign given on Crisp return

TORONTO -- Terry Francona yesterday came as close as he's come to issuing a timetable for Coco Crisp's return, saying the Sox leadoff hitter should be back ''somewhere in the middle of May, give or take a few days. That would probably be pretty close."

A May 15 return, coincidentally, would place Crisp back in Baltimore, where he was injured April 8 awkwardly sliding into third base. If he were to return on that date, he will have missed five weeks and 33 games. Despite the reckless abandon with which he played, Johnny Damon, in his four seasons with the Sox, played in all but 51 of 648 possible games.

Kevin Youkilis hit leadoff yesterday for the 12th time in the 14 games since Crisp broke his left knuckle. In those 12 games Youkilis is batting .327 (16 for 49) with five doubles, one homer, seven runs, seven walks, and 12 strikeouts. He has five two-hit games, one three-hit game, and has gone hitless only three games among those dozen contests.

In the first inning of games in which he's batted leadoff he's 4 for 10 with a single, two doubles, a homer, a walk, a hit by pitch, and three runs. He was hit on the elbow (''nothing too bad," Youkilis said) by Josh Towers leading off yesterday's game and scored on David Ortiz's one-out home run.

Keith Foulke may have unjustly absorbed the loss Friday night, when he issued a two-out walk, turned the ball over to Rudy Seanez, and watched Lyle Overbay crank the winning hit to right-center. Beyond that, he had quite a weekend. Before this visit to Toronto he'd pitched in eight games but had not entered in a tie game or a game the Sox led by two or fewer runs.

Friday night, he entered with the score tied in the 11th inning and worked 1 2/3 innings. Yesterday, he entered with the Sox ahead, 4-3, and one out the sixth, got out of the inning, then blistered his way through a 1-2-3 seventh.

His line for the weekend: 3 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.

His line for the season: 12 2/3 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 10 K's, 3.55 ERA.

The best stat of all might be Foulke's WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched). It's a stingy 0.79. Curt Schilling's WHIP is 0.75.

Foulke's contributions underscored an excellent weekend for the bullpen. Foulke, Jonathan Papelbon (3 1/3), Jermaine Van Buren (3), Mike Timlin (1 1/3), Julian Tavarez (1), and Seanez (1) combined to pitch 13 innings, allowing 11 hits and three runs, walking two while whiffing nine.

With his eighth save in eight opportunities to begin his major league career Papelbon surpassed Dick Radatz's club record of seven. The 25-year-old closer is one save shy of the major league record for saves in April by a rookie (Mike MacDougal, Kansas City, in 2003). Papelbon also notched his first save since going to the Wild Thing mohawk, though it wasn't easy. Russ Adams and Frank Catalanotto singled before Papelbon fanned Vernon Wells and induced Troy Glaus to ground into a game-ending double-play. Would he have shaved his head had he blown the save? ''Nah, not really, I'm not like that, Papelbon said. ''I don't believe in none of that. I'm not superstitious at all really." . . . The Jays' A.J. Burnett is scheduled to visit with orthopedist James Andrews today in Birmingham, Ala., to determine whether the soreness in his throwing elbow is scar tissue continuing to tear or something more serious. Former Marlins teammate Mike Lowell wasn't surprised to hear that Burnett was injured. ''I've never seen him throw a fastball slower than 95," Lowell said. ''My second at-bat [Friday], I thought he was throwing me changeups." How hard were those pitches? ''90," Lowell said.

With one out, runners on first and second, and the Sox ahead, 4-3, in the fifth inning Jason Varitek dropped down a bunt to the left side but was thrown out. He said he was bunting for a hit. Why? ''[Glaus] was playing back, I took some terrible swings, and I knew Mike [Lowell] behind me was swinging the bat good," Varitek said. ''I didn't push the ball as far as I needed to. I deadened it too much." . . . David Ortiz's bunt single against the infield shift with two outs in the sixth was just the second bunt hit of his career. The other came Aug. 21, 2005, in the eighth inning, at Anaheim, Calif. ''He did that on his own," Francona said. ''I would never tell a big boy to go ahead and bunt. I understand it. I don't have a problem with it. He knows he has the green light to do that." Upon reaching safely Ortiz said Overbay told him, ''I would have done that a long time ago." . . . Pitching matchups for the Sox' three-game series that opens tomorrow in Cleveland: Schilling (4-0, 1.61 ERA) vs. RHP Jake Westbrook (2-2, 5.92), Tim Wakefield (1-3, 3.71) vs. LHP Cliff Lee (1-1, 3.33), and Josh Beckett (3-0, 2.54) vs. RHP Paul Byrd (2-2, 9.15) . . . Manny Delcarmen, who was called up yesterday to replace Van Buren (optioned to Pawtucket) warmed up but did not pitch . . . Mark Loretta went 2 for 15 (.133) in the series.

The custody battle for the 2004 World Series baseball, a process that sank so low that the Red Sox filed a lawsuit, ended rather diplomatically, 18 months after Foulke threw over to Doug Mientkiewicz to end 86 titleless years. Mientkiewicz, the players union, the league, and the Sox agreed the ball's resting place would be the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

''An amicable agreement was reached several weeks ago when the suggestion was made that the Hall of Fame become the custodian of the ball," Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino wrote in an email. ''The Red Sox were also granted by the Hall of Fame rights to display the ball from time to time at Fenway and at other special events in Boston and New England."

''Mientkiewicz was the one who suggested the ball go to the Hall of Fame," John Fabiano, a lawyer working for the Sox, told the New York Times. That gesture, Fabiano said, ''surprised the Red Sox, who were apparently convinced that he wanted to keep the ball and eventually sell it."

Mientkiewicz, to the Times: ''It's been blown way out of proportion."