Snyder delivers a victory

Sox top Nationals behind spot starter

June 20, 2006|Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff

With surfer-boy looks and sunglasses perched on his head, Kyle Snyder looked, for a second, like a supersized Bronson Arroyo, come back to save a Red Sox pitching staff that recently has succumbed to the disabled list. It was startling, then, when the bright blue Kansas City Royals duffel came into view, slung over Snyder's shoulder. Taking a castoff from the worst franchise in baseball does not often signal positive things for a team in first place in its division.

That seemed to be why, with a swift motion, assistant equipment manager Pookie Jackson snatched the bag from Snyder minutes after he reached his new locker -- the one with the ``Boston Red Sox" tag still not replaced by a ``52 Kyle Snyder" -- and placed it safely out of sight in the giant storage cabinets that ring the clubhouse.

With this move, the Red Sox were hoping merely for a placeholder. But by the end of the fifth inning, the 6-foot-8-inch Snyder -- a former first-round draft choice by the Royals whose career has been stymied by four major arm surgeries -- already had matched his career high in strikeouts with six, five of which had come on his offspeed pitches, on the way to a 6-3 Red Sox win over the Nationals last night in front of 36,252 at Fenway Park.

``He's throwing the ball as well as he has in years," general manager Theo Epstein said of a pitcher who bombed in his sole outing with the Royals this season (2 innings, 9 runs, 5 earned) and didn't fare much better at Triple A Omaha (0-4, 3.88 ERA). ``The scout was optimistic that this could be a sign that he's finally over his injuries, has a chance to reach the great potential he had earlier in his career. Throwing 90, 91 with good sink, locating his fastball well, both sides of the plate, very good changeup, usable curveball."

That would be the ``usable curveball" that struck out Alfonso Soriano swinging three times.

With a fastball that vacillated between 88 and 91 miles per hour and a curveball that hopped between 68 and 71, Snyder allowed three runs in his 67-pitch, five-inning outing that likely will be his last action with the major league club for some time, since the Sox have no need for a fifth starter until July 1, though manager Terry Francona after the game said the team didn't know what it was going to do with Snyder. Of course, the initial need for Snyder was the result of injuries to three starting pitchers -- David Wells, Matt Clement, and Lenny DiNardo -- none of whom has a return date in sight.

Though Snyder left a 91-mile-per-hour fastball over the plate to Jose Vidro for a solo home run in the first, he gave up only single runs in the second (Brian Schneider RBI single) and third innings (Jose Guillen's seventh home run of the year, off the Coke bottle, on another fastball) before taking an early leave.