BOSTON – A guitar-strumming, corn-rowed Pirates reject holds Boston’s season in his right hand.
It has come down to Bronson Arroyo for the Red Sox, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think he’ll be fine. We’ll see,” pitching coach Dave Wallace said. “We feel he’s prepared for it.”
Boston is in a 2-0 canyon because Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez weren’t up to the task of beating the Yankees, due to injury and age, respectively. It was the first time all season the two aces lost games on consecutive days.
If Arroyo can’t out-pitch Kevin Brown in tonight’s Game 3 at Fenway Park, the Sox will almost certainly be watching the World Series on television.
“I don’t feel the weight of the entire season,” Arroyo said. “I obviously feel a lot of pressure from this series.
“We’re not down 3-0, but obviously we’re backed into a corner, and this is going to be a huge, huge game.”
Arroyo went 10-9 with a 4.03 ERA this season in 29 starts, and his emergence is why Derek Lowe was shoved to the bullpen. The 27-year-old righty was claimed off waivers from the Pirates before the 2003 season and Wallace said he has “great makeup.”
The Key West, Fla., native displays a laid-back – almost comatose – personality in the clubhouse. On the mound, his teammates say he has composure and confidence well beyond his years.
“It’s not unusual for a guy in their second or third opportunity to really relish that and take it and run with it,” Wallace said. “That’s basically what he’s done.”
Arroyo can easily reach the low 90s on the radar gun, but his bread-and-butter is his off-speed stuff. He throws an array of breaking balls for strikes, and he flummoxed the Angels last week over six-plus innings in Game 3 of the ALDS.
“I’ve never seen anybody be able to throw a breaking ball with the command that he does,” closer Keith Foulke marveled. “That’s his gig, that’s what makes him tough.
“He can feature three or four different breaking balls, inside, outside. That’s one thing that keeps the hitters off balance.”
Arroyo also keeps hitters off balance by plunking them. He led the league with 20 hit batsmen. One of those was the Yanks’ Alex Rodriguez on July 24, an unforgettable moment that set off a bench-clearing brawl.
“I probably throw inside less than 75 percent of the starters in the American League,” Arroyo said. “But when I do go inside it’s for a purpose; I have to pitch in there. . . . Sheffield, A-Rod and Jeter at some point in the game, I’ve got to get inside on them. If I don’t, they are just going to look away, look away, they are going to hit my breaking ball . . .
“I realize they don’t like it.”
