BOSTON – At 2 p.m. on a normal afternoon, Boston closer Keith Foulke is either eating a late lunch or in the middle of a nap.
At that time yesterday, he was putting the Yankee bats to sleep.
Foulke, Boston’s critical free-agent pickup, punctuated a 5-4 Patriots Day matinee victory over the Yankees with a called third strike on Jason Giambi. His deceptive changeup and pinpoint fastball flummoxed the Bombers for the third time in four days.
The righty reliever is acclimating himself to Boston after establishing ninth-inning dominance with the White Sox and then Oakland. However, he isn’t up on all the local customs.
“I’m not real sure what Patriots Day is yet,” Foulke said, also adding, “I probably need to get a definition.”
The Massachusetts holiday honors Paul Revere’s midnight ride, and the Red Sox annually play an 11 a.m. game. Foulke said the A’s often played in the afternoon, so it wasn’t a problem.
The score was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, but he began warming up as soon as David McCarty’s one-out, wind-blown double dropped into left.
When Gabe Kapler came through with a two-out RBI single, Foulke was ready for the fourth time in five days.
He fanned Derek Jeter looking to open the ninth on a pinpoint, low-and-away fastball that had Jeter steamed at plate ump Angel Hernandez. Bernie Williams lined out to left on an amazing catch against the Green Monster by the defensively challenged Manny Ramirez.
After Alex Rodriguez managed a single to left, Foulke whiffed Giambi on four pitches – the last an unhittable low fastball – as an ecstatic 35,027 erupted. Foulke tried to be nonchalant about the Red Sox taking three of four from the Yanks.
“It’s the third, fourth series of the year, and that’s how you’ve got to kind of treat it,” he said. “You save the celebration for the end of the season.”
The Red Sox bullpen was in shambles for much of last season. No more.
“Keith is one of the deciding factors that we have,” reliever Mike Timlin said. “We didn’t have a closer last year. We had bullpen by committee, and obviously it didn’t work.”