A Byrd of prey, pray

TORONTO – On the Red Sox' 68th pitch of their 153rd game of the season, Paul Byrd left no room for interpretation. Byrd's fastball has about a 14-handicap -- it hovers near 86 -- but he is clearly is not shy when it comes time to swing.

Grip it and whip it.

"I wanted to move him off the plate," Byrd said of the 86-mph fastball he snaked under the chin of Toronto outfielder Alex Rios in the Red Sox' 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays last night. "I have to do that. I have to have the inside part of the plate. I have to have people's respect.

"I'm a Christian," Byrd continued, offering either a disclaimer or an explanation for what he was about to say next. "God gave me 86. I can't pick and nibble and shy away. I have 86 and I have to attack."

Come to think of it, they should have support groups for guys like Byrd. I'm Paul Byrd and I throw 86 mph. Everyone from Anthony Robbins to Stuart Smalley could cite Byrd as a man who has maximized his talent, who has gotten more from less, who growls like a grizzly despite a fastball as soft as cub's fur.

Time for the daily affirmation.

I'm good enough, I throw hard enough and, doggone it, hitters fear me.

Fine. So Byrd throws a fastball that couldn't break wind. But the Red Sox are now 5-2 in Byrd's seven starts since he joined the team, and what Byrd did to combat Alex Rios last night was as important as anything else that happened in a victory that moved the Sox thisclose to their fifth postseason appearance in the last six seasons.

Trailing 2-0 against the talented and motivated A.J. Burnett -- for A.J., after all, this is a contract year -- the opportunistic Red Sox scraped out three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 3-2 advantage. The Jays already had erased that lead and had Marco Scutaro (RBI double) in scoring position with one out when Rios stepped into the batter's box, when Byrd dug in his heels and did what any competitive, professional pitcher would do.

Having already failed to protect the Red Sox' lead, he decided he would not walk off the mound with anything worse than tied.

Last month, when Byrd made his debut for the Red Sox on Aug. 16, Rios homered in the first inning of an eventual 4-1 Toronto win. Six days later, again in the first inning, Rios homered again in what would become a 6-4 Boston victory, pounding almost exactly the same pitch (fastball, inner half) to almost the same part of the stadium (left field). Last night marked Byrd's fifth start against Toronto this year, all in the last 41 days, and it now seems clear that Byrd had grown tired of serving marshmallows to the gluttonous Mr. Rios.

So Byrd snapped the kind of fastball that Roger Clemens might have described as a "bow tie," which was not dirty or dangerous as much as it was hard-nosed. Byrd led all American League pitchers in fewest walks per nine innings last year and has walked just nine batters in 45 innings since joining the Sox, so rest assured that the pitch was not an accident. Even Christians will fight for what they believe is theirs.

"When you throw 86, you can't throw to one side of the plate," said Byrd.

Amen to that.

What happened next came almost directly from "Field of Dreams," when a sprightly Moonlight Graham stood in the right-handed batter's box and winked at a snarling right-hander named Knuckles. The next pitch knocked Graham on his bottom. The rattled, young Graham dusted himself off and got back into the box, but only after a brief exchange with Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta.

"Those first two were high and tight, so what do you think the next one will be?" Jackson asked.

"Either low and away or in my ear," said Graham.

"He's not going to want to load the bases, so look for low and away," Jackson said.

"Right," Graham answered.

"But watch out for in your ear," said the shoeless one.

Following the script to the letter, Byrd went down and away with a breaking ball, a pitch Rios laid. Nonetheless, Byrd had accomplished his objective. On the next offering, Byrd then sneaked an 87-mph fastball past the presumably preoccupied Rios, who subsequently fouled out to third baseman Kevin Youkilis on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, another breaking ball.

On the inner edge of the plate.

With two outs and the go-head run at second base, Byrd then retired Vernon Wells on a simple grounder to the left side, Youkilis tagging Scutaro for the third and final out. A potential Jays rally had been deftly defused, Byrd walking off the mound in a game tied at 3 instead of with the Sox facing a deficit.

Byrd, for his part, did not end up with a win in this game, but his contributions should not go overlooked; on paper, this was a game and pitching matchup that clearly favored the Jays. Entering the game, since the All-Star break, Burnett was 9-2 with a 2.77 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 87.2 innings; during that span, opponents batted just .223 against him. Burnett has the stuff of a Cy Young winner and can be as dominating as any pitcher in the game -- God gave him 96 -- and yet his career record (87-76, .534 winning percentage) puts him a whisker behind the soft-serving Byrd (108-93, .537).

Clearly, there is more to pitching than just possessing power.

You also have to harness what little you may have.

"I think I'm satisfied in that our team was facing a frontline pitcher who's been really hot, we're in a pennant race and we're coming off a tough loss (To Tampa, 10-3, on Wednesday)," Byrd said. "To help out, that feels really good."

It should.