Players stay but their anxiety goes

Four o'clock passed quietly at Fenway Park yesterday, with the Red Sox clubhouse remaining intact. Perhaps a sigh of relief was exhaled by a few players whose names had been circulating as the trade deadline approached.

There was Mark Loretta, who sat out Sunday night's game in a scheduled day off and faced what manager Terry Francona dubbed the worst rumors of all when it was reported that the second baseman was spotted leaving the players' parking lot in his street clothes during the game. Actually, he was in full uniform, sitting in the Sox dugout. Someone also said his wife was spotted crying at the game, but she hadn't heard anything about her husband being traded and never shed a tear, Loretta said.

``At that point," said Loretta, ``it was like, `Well, this is getting a little out of control.' "

A reporter suggested perhaps there was a Loretta lookalike at the park Sunday.

``I don't think so," said Loretta. ``Ben Affleck maybe.

``You never know who starts the rumor. I've been around long enough to not really put any credence to that. It could be somebody who's sitting at home on a blog or something -- or somebody thinks they see me leaving the parking lot. Obviously, I wasn't doing that.

``I understand that things get started, and I don't take it as a slight from the team at all. They may not have had any discussions. Who knows?"

For Mike Lowell, who reportedly was brought up in talks with the Padres, this time of year is just something you get used to.

``I think most guys have kind of gone through this," Lowell said, ``whether it's concerning the person himself or the team as a unit, other guys. Most guys realize it's kind of part of the business. It's kind of what goes on this time of year.

``It comes and goes and, usually, with all the talk about a deal, nothing happens. I mean, nobody had [Julio] Lugo going to the Dodgers. They had him going to 14 other teams."

For Theo Epstein, what it came down to was the youth; other teams wanted his young guys, and the Sox general manager wasn't willing to let them go. One of those young players, Jon Lester, already has a lot of experience in dealing with trade rumors around deadline time.

In 2003, his first season in the Red Sox organization, Lester was offered, along with Manny Ramírez, in the Alex Rodriguez trade talks with Texas (``I wondered what I did wrong," Lester said). This year, the Globe's Gordon Edes reported the Sox had one conversation with the Atlanta Braves to ask what it would take to get Andruw Jones. The Braves responded with Lester, Craig Hansen, and Coco Crisp, and the conversation ended there.

``I've been through so many [trade talks] I just don't worry about it," Lester said. ``If they call me in, then we'll start talking, but other than that, I just don't even listen."

To Lester, perhaps the most significant thing to come out of deadline day was Epstein's expression of faith in the team's youth.

``[What Epstein said is] just a big confidence booster right there," Lester said, ``that he believes in us as a young group, that we're going to do something special for this organization."

Loretta and Lowell echoed Lester, saying they are more than content to take their team -- as is -- into the stretch.

``I'm not [a guy who believes in] forfeiting my minor league system for a stopgap guy for two months," said Lowell. ``Some of those deadline deals are way overrated, and the buyers end up giving so much.

``I don't think players get as wrapped up in it as people think. I'm not having a beer after the game saying, `We've got to get rid of this guy and get this guy,' because there are too many other factors.

``I have no idea what evaluations we have in our minor league system. I don't know who we have in A ball, so sometimes those are the biggest deals. I know we got Dontrelle [Willis] as a throw-in with the Marlins, and look how he panned out.

``There are so many more factors that go into it than just what we see on the top because we're concerned about really the big-league level and maybe guys we've seen at spring training on the 40-man roster, but it goes a lot deeper than that."