Baseball

Pulling Up the Red Sox
With two studs, a use-'em-all roster and gut feel, skipper Jimy Williams has Boston on top

The red sox trailed the Indians 1-0 in the eighth at Jacobs Field last Saturday with their number 9 hitter, rookie Trot Nixon, at the plate, a runner at first and no outs. Boston had touched starter Bartolo Colon for only three hits, and conventional wisdom, coupled with Nixon's .243 average, dictated that Red Sox manager Jimy Williams scream, "Bunt!" from the dugout. Asked after the game why he let Nixon swing away, Williams drawled, "Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't."

It was a typical Williams hunch play—"He manages from his heart," says Boston first baseman Mike Stanley—and like most of the moves he has made this year, it worked: Nixon doubled and, four batters later, scored on Nomar Garciaparra's three-run homer, which would give Boston a 4-2 victory. Another 4-2 win on Sunday completed a three-game Sox sweep and a 17-day stretch during which Boston went 12-4 against the Blue Jays, Yankees and Indians and emerged with a half-game lead in the American League East.

The Red Sox, who were expected to have tumbled by now into the power and leadership hole left by Mo Vaughn's departure, have ascended behind a dominating rotation and solid defense. Led by ace righthander Pedro Martinez (10-1, 2.01 ERA through Sunday), Boston's starters led the league in wins, ERA, strikeouts and fewest walks allowed. The Red Sox had hit only 45 homers, the league's second-lowest total, but they had pecked away at opposing pitchers by putting the ball in play—Boston had at least 10 hits in 21 of its 28 games in May.

Mostly, though, the Red Sox have thrived because Williams has coaxed as much out of a largely starless lineup as any skipper east of Dusty Baker. He has shuffled a roster full of role players in and out of the lineup around Garciaparra (5 for 11 with four homers and eight RBIs in Cleveland), getting everyone enough at bats to stay sharp. "Some are going to play more than others, but I don't think we have utility players," Williams says. "I'm going to play them all."

Sounds simple, unless your team features three DH-first basemen, three weak-hitting outfielders for two spots and no reliable power source apart from Garciaparra. Williams rotates lefthanded-hitting Brian Daubach and Reggie Jefferson and righty Mike Stanley in the first base and DH spots; through Sunday that trio was hitting a combined .304 with 11 homers and 51 RBIs. Williams had gotten respectable production—55 runs and 37 RBIs—plus excellent defense from various permutations of Nixon, Darren Lewis and Damon Buford in center and right. "Nobody here can say they go very long without at bats," says Stanley.

Williams also keeps everyone awake by managing more by feel than by computer, as he did in letting Nixon swing away against Colon. On May 17 he let Daubach, a rookie with two career at bats against lefthanders at the time, hit against Blue Jays southpaw Graeme Lloyd with two outs and two men on in the ninth inning of a 4-4 game. Daubach hit a three-run homer to key Boston's 8-7 win. "I'm slowly learning that Jimy's not afraid to surprise you with a few things," says Nixon.

Like having the Red Sox in first place.

Coaching Tool
Electronic Surveillance

When Mets lefthander Al Leiter won his start against the Brewers on May 20, it was his first victory in a month—but something still wasn't right. Pitching for weeks with strained ligaments in his left knee, Leiter, a 17-game winner in 1998, had struggled to a 2-4 record with a 6.38 ERA, and now he felt pain in his left biceps. Leiter told manager Bobby Valentine, who responded by settling down for a Blockbuster night with his ace and pitching coach Bob Apodaca. "Video is huge," says Apodaca. "It's a set of eyes mat can see all."