As weather cools, Papelbon turns up heat

Jonathan Papelbon hasn't exactly been himself this month, but if you thought the Red Sox closer looked far more familiar on Tuesday night, you weren't alone.

The Red Sox did, too.

After entering Tuesday with a 4.32 ERA during the month of September - opponents were batting .361 against him - Papelbon retired all four batters he faced in 1.1 innings. He struck out two. And while Papelbon threw just 10 pitches, his fastball touched 97 mph on the stadium radar gun, registering 3-4 mph higher than he has in recent weeks.

"He hasn't thrown 97 in about a month,'' one observer in the Boston clubhouse noted after the game.

Prior to tonight's game, Sox manager Terry Francona acknowledged that he saw a different, better Papelbon.

"I think we were waiting for that,'' Francona said. "Pap - during day games sometimes, he can come out a little sluggish. It's just hard to be perfect [for an entire season].

"I don't think that's surprising,'' Francona said when asked whether Papelbon fed off the adrenaline of the moment. "I think he uses the adrenaline to his benefit. The situation doesn't overwhelm him. As screwy as Pap can be, when you give him that ball, it's a nice feeling. I don't have to tell Pap anything. He knows what to do.''

Obviously, Papelbon will play a key role if the Red Sox are to have any success in the playoffs. In his postseason career to date, Papelbon has allowed just seven hits and no runs in 14 2/3 innings over nine appearances. He has given the Red Sox the kind of presence at the end of games that the Yankees have enjoyed with Mariano Rivera, whose career postseason numbers (a 0.77 ERA in 117 1/3 innings) are off the charts.

Naturally, the Red Sox will give Papelon his fair share of rest this week given that he already has set a career best for appearances (65); he is also within one inning of matching the career-best 68 1/3 innings he posted in a 2006 campaign during which he suffered a shoulder injury. It had been quite some time since Papelbon lit up a stadium radar gun like he did in last night's game, after which nobody asked whether Papelbon was relying on his fastball too much.

Maybe the problem all along was that he just needed a little more incentive to pitch?