A rare show of power may give Nixon jolt

OAKLAND, Calif. -- There was certainly some question as to why, with two righthanded outfielders sitting in the dugout in Gabe Kapler and Wily Mo Peña, Trot Nixon was left in for a critical bases-loaded eighth-inning at-bat, with the Red Sox leading Oakland by a run. Nixon was 0 for 3 against lefthanded pitcher Brad Halsey, brought in to face him, and .213 against lefties this season.

Still, there he was at the plate, looking out at Mark Loretta on third, David Ortiz on second, and Manny Ramírez on first. And, then, after a poorly-located pitch from Halsey, he walked.

It wasn't the biggest dent he'd made in Oakland's pitching staff -- that came on a third-inning home run that broke his streak of 123 homerless at-bats. But it was clearly the most important, turning that one-run lead into an eventual 13-5 rout at McAfee Coliseum in which the Sox scored six times in the eighth -- beginning with that Nixon RBI.

OK, the walk was huge. But it was the homer that must have brought a deep sigh of relief from Nixon. On the third pitch of the at-bat against A's starter Jason Windsor, Nixon hammered his seventh home run of the season -- and first since June 9 off Texas pitcher Vicente Padilla -- over the fence in right between the 388- and 362-foot markers. Which was three pitches after Ramírez had taken Windsor over the scoreboard in left for his 28th homer of the season, the fifth time this season Sox batters have gone back-to-back.

``It's not so much having good swings, trying to be more aggressive at the plate, as trying to find a good, solid stroke," Nixon said. ``We've run into a string of lefthanders here lately, so it's important for me to get out there and get my timing back down and just be aggressive at the plate. I'm not saying I haven't been aggressive earlier in the year.

``Be a little angry in the batter's box, but a controlled anger."

In the ninth Nixon was hit by a pitch to load the bases, which helped the Sox pile on another run after Mike Lowell hit a sacrifice fly.

With free agency coming at the end of this year, the trade rumors should not have come as a surprise to the longest-tenured member of the Red Sox organization, perhaps leading to the .137 slump (7 for 51 in his last 13 games) that has left him lacking in power and average. His three RBIs last night, another coming on a sac fly in the first, were one more than his total for the month of July before last night, an impressively unimpressive feat given the big bats in front of him.

Singles, somehow, have become his medium. Of his 11 hits in July before last night, every one was a single.

And that was giving rise to more questions.

Why would an opposing manager elect to pitch to either David Ortiz or Ramírez with no oomph behind them? Nixon was hardly protecting his team's greatest offensive assets, making his No. 5 slot in the order something of a empty hole. But maybe with his performance last night, Nixon has started a resurgence that will keep him locked in.

Not that manager Terry Francona has -- at least publicly -- wavered in his support for Nixon.

``It's nice when Trot swings the bat," Francona said. ``Trot's a pretty good hitter, even if he's 0 for 3 going into an at-bat he's still a good hitter. He commands the strike zone. He's not going to start swinging at something out of the zone. And he's faced enough lefties this year where it's not like it's an aberration, where you feel funny letting him swing."

Francona said he left Nixon in against Halsey for two reasons, the first being that the team was still leading. And, he said, Halsey has been struggling with lefthanded batters, so it wasn't exactly the traditional lefty-lefty matchup.