Changeups threw Gagné

The cries have died down, the ones that exhorted general manager Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona to consider leaving Eric Gagné off the postseason roster.

But Gagné could have a huge impact on this series by shoring up the eighth inning as Hideki Okajima continues to come back from a bout of fatigue.

As his struggles upon joining the Red Sox have been well documented, (three blown saves and an injury), Gagné has realized exactly how difficult a transition he has endured. Nothing was the same. Sure, it was baseball. But that's where the similarities ended.

"Everything," Gagné said. "Not just physically, mentally. New place, everything. New role. Everything. More confidence now. I feel good about myself.

"New city, new teammates, new everything. The whole thing about going in the eighth inning. The way you prepare, the way you go about your business."

So, he was asked, do those who don't play baseball underestimate the difficulty of jumping from one team to another, as Gagné did when he was traded from Texas at the deadline?

"I know I did," Gagné said. "And I'm playing baseball. It's a little different. You have to come here, adjust, and try to fit in."

He might have fit in, personality-wise, but he certainly didn't fit in baseball-wise with a team that was cruising toward the postseason. He had trouble, quite clearly, culminating in a blown game Sept. 18 at Toronto that prompted panic.

Since that game, in which Gagné gave up three earned runs on two hits and three walks, the former Cy Young closer has pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings over five appearances, though he was taken out of a game against Oakland with two outs, after giving up a hit and a walk. Not that he has pitched flawlessly. He hasn't. But the three hits, and two walks, have been balanced by seven strikeouts. It's a vast improvement from what he was doing in August, after arriving in Boston.

"Just kept fighting," Gagné said of his mental approach. "Kept going out there, kept believing in myself. It helped a lot with these guys here. I mean, they really believed in me. They kept believing in me. When I was struggling they just kept on throwing me out there. Bullpen, everybody in the clubhouse. Everybody just kept a positive attitude."

But it wasn't easy. Not for him or the team. It wasn't easy for the fans to watch. But, as the bullpen prepares for the Angels, he could be an important piece of the bridge from the starters to Jonathan Papelbon. Postseason success could go a long way in turning around his perception in Boston.

"For him to come in and struggle like he did, we all admit it was tough at first, for him to handle it the way he did, says a lot about him," Francona said. "I needed not to bail on this guy. No matter how veteran you are, how much success you've had, he had to be feeling it. That's hard to do. You're trying to prove the worthiness of the trade, and your new team, and it's in Boston. He was as stand up as you could be. He's told me from Day 1, 'Use me wherever you want to use me.' He goes, 'I'll be ready.' "

For him, and for this team, he'd better be.

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.