01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Some guys are star-kissed. Others are star-crossed.

Some guys seemingly can do wrong. Others can't seem to do anything right.

Some guys you can readily see are destined to succeed. Others you just know are doomed to fail.

Especially in Boston, with the Red Sox.

The club has patience, but the fans don't. Red Sox Nation can be adoring, but it also can be unforgiving. If the fans like you, they'll cut you some slack. If they don't, the concept of "friendly Fenway" is a misnomer of larger proportions than the Green Monster.

The latest examples are everybody's hero, Jonathan Papelbon, already well on his way to becoming Boston's next superstar, and the struggling Wily Mo Pena, who some fans already wish was on his way out of town.

Everybody loves Papelbon. And why wouldn't they?

At the age of 25, and in his first full year in the majors, he assumed the role of closer -- displacing the veteran Keith Foulke -- in the second game of the season.

Papelbon is 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, and both fearless and fearsome. He throws bullets and has unerring aim. Going into last night's game in Cleveland, Papelbon had made 10 appearances in relief without giving up a run. He'd struck out 9 in 11 1/3 innings while walking only 2 and racking up 8 saves.

He has talent. He has confidence. He has charisma. If he happens to have a bad outing, as he inevitably will, it will be dismissed as an aberration. Instead of giving him grief, Red Sox Nation will be clamoring to give him the ball again as soon as possible.

Then there is Wily Mo. It wasn't his fault he came to Boston in the deal that sent popular pitcher Bronson Arroyo to Cincinnati. The front office made it plain that the strikeout-prone slugger was a work in progress -- that he was still young (23), that he was undisciplined at the plate, that he was defensively deficient.

The latter point was painfully evident in the home opener at Fenway when a ball went off Pena's glove and into the visiting bullpen in right field for a homer.

And who was the pitcher who was victimized by Wily Mo's defensive faux pas? The unfortunate Foulke.

Call it coincidence, if you will. But it somehow seemed inevitable that, of all the pitchers on the Red Sox's staff, it would be Foulke -- trying to battle back from knee problems that caused him to fall into disfavor last season after having been a fan favorite when Boston won the World Series in 2004 -- who would happen to be on the hill when Pena turned an out into a home run.

Foulke could have become a folk hero in Boston after getting the final out in Game Four of the World Series sweep of St. Louis that ended the Sox's 86-year championship drought.

But, bothered by a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery in July, Foulke's earned-run average ballooned from 2.17 in '04 to 6.23 just prior to going on the disabled list last year, at which point he was 5-5, with 15 saves in 19 chances, after giving up 46 hits and walking 15 in 35 2/3 innings.

As Papelbon appears to be a superstar in the making, Foulke is one of those guys who is star-crossed.

Consider what happened last Friday in Toronto. After Josh Beckett and Mike Timlin had combined to blow a 6-2 lead by giving up three home runs in the eighth, Papelbon had come on to hold the Jays at bay for two innings.

The Sox turned to Foulke in the 11th -- the first time all season he'd come into a game in which Boston wasn't ahead by at least three runs. He got through that inning, then retired the first two batters in the 12th before issuing a walk to Troy Glaus. Then Terry Francona decided to bring in Rudy Seanez, whose E.R.A. going into last night was a whopping 7.71.

Lyle Overbay promptly drilled a shot to right-center that scored Glaus from first and saddled Foulke with the loss.

Napoleon, when weighing the qualifications of his generals, considered not only their tactical expertise and bravery, but invariably would ask: "Is he lucky?"

Clearly, Foulke, victimized first by Wily Mo, then by Seanez, is pitching like a guy who had a black cat walk across his path as he was walking under a ladder.

Sure, he would have been out of the inning in Toronto if he hadn't walked Glaus. And Wily Mo wouldn't have dropped the ball into the pen in the opener if hadn't already been up against the fence.

But don't you get the sense that, no matter what Foulke does, it won't turn out well for him?

As for Wily Mo, he hasn't helped himself by striking out 11 times in 27 at-bats, and the fact he currently has hit fewer home runs (1) than Arroyo (2) is embarrassing for the big guy.

Pena may yet turn out to be a player. But it may not be in Boston, where patience is in short supply.

Unlike Papelbon, who's star-kissed, Pena is star-crossed.

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340