A range of emotions for Texas

September 05, 2004|On baseball, Globe Staff

It didn't take anything so drastic as driving a stake through Manny Ramirez's heart, but to the Texas Rangers, who brought an end to the Red Sox' 10-game winning streak here, it almost felt like that's what was needed to put the Sox in the loss column. "Especially in Boston," said Doug Brocail, the Rangers' 37-year-old reliever who has pulled off the baseball equivalent of coming back from the dead -- pitching again after having two operations on his elbow and missing two complete seasons -- and yesterday registered four big outs after the Sox had whittled a seven-run deficit to two before falling, 8-6.

"It's not like you're pitching in front of a dead crowd here," Brocail said. "The crowd here brings you to another level, especially with the Red Sox as hot as they are."

Leave it to one of Larry Lucchino's fellow alums from Princeton, rookie pitcher Chris Young, to play a big role in braking the Sox' run toward the top of the American League East, holding Boston to a run on two hits in 5 2/3 innings. Big, as in 6 feet 10 inches -- he's Randy Johnson without the scraggly hair, relying on his 94-mile-an-hour fastball with a few changeups mixed in to register his first major league win.

"He's mature, tough," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said of Young, who was an All-Ivy League basketball player, scoring a career-best 30 points against Harvard and 20 in an NCAA Tournament game against Kansas.

"Good body language. Big body language. I appreciated him walking to the bottom of the mound when I came out there," said Showalter, who is a foot shorter.

Young, the first Princeton product to start a major league game since Dave Sisler pitched for the Washington Senators 43 years ago, knew of the Sox CEO's Ivy League pedigree. "He came and spoke to one of my classes my senior year," said Young, a political science major who finished his degree in four years even though he was drafted after his junior year by Pittsburgh and signed with the Pirates. "A lot of what he talked about had to do with financing major league stadiums. I know he was connected with Camden Yards. A very bright guy."

When it was suggested to Young that Lucchino probably wasn't too happy that his club was done in by a former Tiger, Young said, "Come on, his team just won 10 of its last 11."