04/28/2002

Strange game, baseball.

Prior to last April 4, it had been 35 1/2 years since a Red Sox pitcher had thrown a no-hitter. Now they've thrown two in the last 388 days.

The first, by Hideo Nomo last April 4 in Baltimore, was understandable if unexpected. Nomo had done it before, in 1995 with the Dodgers, and his strong second half in 2000 -- which went virtually unnoticed, since it occurred in the relative obscurity of Detroit -- had been a tipoff, to those who were paying attention, that he'd begun to regain some of his former luster.

But the second . . .

After all, this is the same Derek Lowe who last April blew two saves and lost four games out of the Boston bullpen. The same Derek Lowe who lost his job as the Red Sox' closer to Ugueth Urbina last August. It used to be that failed starters in baseball were banished to the bullpen. Last September, Lowe made the opposite trip: Failed reliever banished to the starting rotation.

Yes, baseball is a strange game.

But yesterday wasn't as strange as it might seem.

There was plenty of evidence on record that Derek Lowe is a solid pitcher. In his three late-season starts last year, his E.R.A. was a Pedro-esque 1.13. He opened this season with seven no-hit innings against the Orioles in Baltimore, and the only hit he allowed was an infield single by Tony Batista on a ball third baseman Shea Hillenbrand probably should have let roll foul. He entered yesterday's game with some strong statistics -- a 3-1 record and a 2.73 E.R.A. and opponents were hitting only .169 against him.

Not a whole lot of people had noticed . . . but some did.

"I picked him as my Cy Young [Award winner] for this year," Pedro Martinez told reporters after yesterday's game. "He's got so much potential."

"He knows what he's doing now," agreed manager Grady Little. "He's learned how to pitch. He's going to be a good one."

High praise, and well deserved. And yet . . .

Derek Lowe's been a very good pitcher for a long time. His bullpen struggles in 2001 overshadowed the fact that he'd been an All-Star reliever in 2000, and a rock of strength in the Sox' pen over the last two months of 1999. Now, he may well be more suited to start than relieve, and former manager Joe Kerrigan's legacy to Boston may be his decision to move Lowe to the rotation. Still, he's beyond "potential," and he already is "a good one."

The proof? In his latest book, Win Shares, baseball analyst Bill James writes that there have been 30 cases in baseball history when a team had the two best pitchers in the league. Two of those cases were in back-to-back years, 1999 and 2000.

The team? The Red Sox. The pitchers? Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe.

"Nobody noticed," wrote James, "and this will be a surprise to even the Red Sox fans reading this. Martinez was so good, in both seasons, that nobody thought to put Derek Lowe in the same group with him, even though Lowe was excellent."

People will notice Derek Lowe now. No-hitters tend to get you noticed. No-hitters like yesterday's -- in which the Devil Rays were completely overmatched, and didn't come close to getting a hit -- are even more noticeable. (And before the naysayers begin to wonder how much credit should be given for holding the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hitless, remember that the Rays had never been no-hit in their history before yesterday.)

So what people are going to say -- what they're already saying -- is that Derek Lowe is beginning to reach his potential. That he's going to be a good one.

When all that's really happening is, people are beginning to recognize Derek Lowe for the kind of pitcher he's been for a long time.

Strange game, baseball. Strange, indeed.

Art Martone is the sports editor of the Providence Journal. He can be reached via e-mail at amartone@projo.com