A milestone outing for Snyder

Standing outside the Red Sox clubhouse, his shoulder and elbow wrapped tightly in ice, Kyle Snyder greeted his family. He hugged his mother, Sandy, and sister, Kate, who have traveled from Sarasota, Fla., to each of Snyder's three outings at Fenway.

A David Ortiz three-run walkoff home run had just given the Red Sox a 9-8 win over Cleveland, and while Ortiz may have been at the center of his celebrating teammates at home plate, to Sandy and Kate, Snyder was last night's hero.

There were tears from all three Snyders -- for the 28-year-old's performance, yes, but mostly for what last night's winning pitcher, who was scheduled to start tomorrow but came in to relieve a struggling David Wells with two outs in the fifth inning, went through to get here.

For the first time in his career, the 6-foot-8-inch righthander made it to August without a trip to the disabled list. He's had four major operations, including Tommy John surgery on his elbow in 2000, which caused him to miss the entire 2001 season, and arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder in 2003, which led to his missing the entire 2004 season.

``I know the quality of the man who just pitched," Sandy Snyder said, wiping away tears. ``I've been to a lot of operating rooms, and I've heard him get up the morning after surgery and go to rehab, and I've been to rehab with him the day after surgery three out of four times. He's made of the right stuff."

Last night, he had the right stuff. He took the ball with one man on base in the fifth and got Jhonny Peralta to fly out to end the inning. In the sixth, he gave up his only hit of the night but got Kelly Shoppach, Andy Marte, and Jason Michaels to strike out swinging. In the seventh, eighth, and ninth he went three up, three down, with three more strikeouts, all swinging.

His family wasn't scheduled to arrive in Boston until today, but Sunday, Terry Francona told Snyder that he might pitch the next day if Wells couldn't go deep in the game.

``I called them after the game [Sunday] night," Snyder said, ``and told them `You guys better get on the plane [because there is] a good chance I'm probably going to pitch."

So with his family in the stands, Snyder started the game in the dugout, with his spikes on. In the second inning, Francona sent Snyder to the bullpen, where he warmed up twice before taking his 7.15 ERA to the mound in the fifth; he walked off the hill in the ninth having trimmed that number to 6.00.

It was, Snyder said, the sweetest moment of his career.

``This is the most important performance to me, personally, that I've ever been a part of," he said. ``I can't describe the feeling. It's overwhelming. To be able to come back, and keep the team in the game, and to be able to come back with a W like that. To watch David Ortiz do what he does. It's totally beyond me."

As far as what a night in the bullpen means for Snyder's future, Francona said he isn't sure and that Jason Johnson will start tonight. And while yet another clutch performance from Ortiz was noteworthy, Francona didn't want to lose perspective.

``I'll be happy to talk about David all night," he said, ``but what I hope doesn't get overlooked is what Kyle Snyder did. That was unbelievable. We talked to him last night about the possibility [of going to the bullpen]. We didn't want to kill our bullpen, and the chances of David getting deep, the odds were against him a little bit doing that. [Snyder] was so good about it, and he said, `I'll run down there.' And he did, and he pitched so well. That's a big lift. That's part of the reason we like this team so much, because guys do things like that.

``He was pitching with confidence, attacking the strike zone with three different pitches, but more than that, I was just so proud of him for the way he did it. You could see how he was. He knows, I hope he knows, what he gave to our ball club."

It seems Snyder does know what he gave the ball club last night, but more important -- as the hugs and the tears demonstrated -- he knows what he gave himself.