With the heat on, his heater was on
Papelbon coolly silenced Tampa Bay
Jonathan Papelbon kicked the spikes of his right red-black-and-white Reebok across the front of the rubber, digging in for the most important out of last night's game, if not the Red Sox' season. Runners strayed off second and third base while Papelbon hurled his warmup pitches. It was the eighth inning. Both "out" lights on the Fenway Park scoreboard were lit up red. The Dropkick Murphys blared.
A full week had passed since Papelbon last threw a pitch in a save situation, nearly a full season gone by since his work carried such significance. Rocco Baldelli, the tying run, stepped to the plate.
The stadium buzzed, but there was no jolt in Papelbon. He didn't want it, and he didn't need it.
"That's what's good about him," reliever Manny Delcarmen said. "He looked normal to me warming up. He just tries to stay even keel."
Even keel for the Red Sox closer - "the best in baseball," Jon Lester said - still implies dominance. Papelbon blew away Baldelli with six fastballs, then secured Boston's 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays with an emphatic four-out save. Papelbon had not earned a save since Sept. 1 and hadn't recorded four outs since Aug. 26.
"I feel strong. I feel healthy," Papelbon said. "I just got to keep staying on it and keep doing what I've been doing, and not necessarily expect things to come my way."
Papelbon pounded heater after heater into Jason Varitek's mitt, an onslaught of strikes. Only one of his 18 pitches, a splitter to Eric Hinske, was not a fastball, and 13 were strikes. But Papelbon's fastball was a weapon of choice, not necessity.
"He can get you out a lot of different ways," Lester said. "He can power you like he did tonight, just throw all fastballs. Or he can mix in that unbelievable split, or now he's got a slider.
"It's fun to watch him just go out and absolutely dominate hitters. It seems like guys at times don't have a chance to hit him even if he tells them the fastball's coming."
Papelbon was anything but dominant Sunday, but the two outs he recorded against the Rangers helped him last night. Manager Terry Francona worried that Papelbon, who hadn't pitched since Sept. 1, was gathering rust, but he didn't want to wear out Papelbon for the Rays series. Francona sent Chris Smith to record one out, leaving just two for Papelbon. He allowed two hits and an inherited runner to score, but his struggles served as a benefit.
"It was big he got some [work] in yesterday to allow him to be sharper today," Varitek said. "It had been a while. He's a horse when he gets to pitch."
He proved that much against Baldelli. Papelbon blazed only fastballs at Baldelli - 94 miles per hour, then 96, then 97. Baldelli, whom Lester had already struck out three times, could count the two balls he fouled off as something of a victory.
Papelbon struck out two more in the ninth, battering the strike zone with fastballs that again reached 97 m.p.h. on the scoreboard radar gun. Hinske managed a single through the middle, but that was all Papelbon gave the Rays. After Gabe Gross fanned on his final fastball, Papelbon crouched facing the Sox dugout, screamed, and pumped both fists.
"He's always amped up, but under control," Varitek said. "He knows how to use that adrenaline in the right direction, where he doesn't do too much."
Which, for Papelbon, is more than enough.
Adam Kilgore can be reached at akilgore@globe.com 