Date: Saturday April 27, 2002

Lowe and Behold, a Diamond in the Diamond

After the Old Towne sweeps of this past Sunday and Thursday on which the Bruins, Celts and Sox combined to go 7-0, I'm sure a Boston fan could be forgiven for getting a little greedy.

I mean, is it too much to expect your hockey team to win when it outshoots the opposition by 30?  Thirty shots!  The vastly superior team will lose this series because of its remarkable inferiority at one position. 

But, happily, Jose Theodore gave only the second-most dominant performance in the Hub today.  Let's hear it for D-Lowe!

Sure, Tyner, Abernathy, Conti(?), Escalona, Winn and Co. don't exactly evoke images of King Carl Hubbell fanning Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons and Cronin in the 1934 All-Star Game.  Nonetheless, D-Lowe, who couldn't pitch a hitless inning last year, took his second no-no into the eighth in the first month of the season and this time there was no line-hugging - Let it go, Shea! - roller to spoil things.  And to think today's masterpiece came on the heels of a 1-2-3 inning by Ugly Urbina.  The question remains, however, which was a bigger surprise?

Isn't it amazing how endearing Lowe's loosey-goosey, rock-and-fire body language is when he's dominating teams with that hard sinker, particularly when compared with how galling that same body language was when he was loosily goosily blowing saves?  The guy has been tossing darts all season, hitting the corners with that mercury heavy ball he throws.  Not to awaken the slumbering Bad Voodoo Jinx Totem of 2001, but watching Lowe today reminded me of the way Tim Hudson dominates.  Everything down and hard, down and hard.  And when Rickey Henderson and Manny Ramirez are two-thirds of your outfield, you want everything hit on the ground. 

Speaking of The Rick, he may not have the jets he used to, but did you see the break he got on that sinking liner in the ninth?  Pretty amazing for a guy who hasn't played center in years and hasn't played there regularly since 1986.  That said, get well quick, Johnny Damon.

If Lowe is really this good, do you understand how much this changes everything?  Instead of being favored in Game 1 of a playoff series and then underdogs in Games 2-4, we might actually have the money line tilted toward us in Game 2.  Forgive me for my irrational exuberance.  It's the new, positive Hench.

Besides, after going my entire lifetime without a Red Sox no-hitter, we now seem to have one every year.  Dave Morehead, we hardly knew ye.  The difference with today's gem is that unlike Hideo Nomo, whose stay was brief, or Morehead, whose tenure was actually quite awful (35-56), D-Lowe looks like he could be a frontline starter for years to come. 

When the Man Most Likely To still hasn't spun a no-hitter for the Sox, it makes you think that maybe this year will be like 1962 when Earl Wilson and Bill Monboquette both threw no-hitters for the Townies.

When does Pedro get his first crack of 2002 at these D-Rays?

Did the ESPN News guy really just say that the last time the Red Sox had consecutive years with no-hitters was 1917 and 1918?

Hardball