A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
Bronson Arroyo shows no-hitter stuff

May 5, 2005 ... Bronson Arroyo's eight-inning, three-hit, one-run tour de force in today's 2-1 matinee win over the Detroit Tigers, was the Sox' fifth on this seven-game road trip, before 24,870 at Comerica Park. Arroyo was so pinpoint in his pitches that, as the game rolled on, no one was talking to him on the bench and everyone was sitting in the same place. Yes, he took a no-hitter deep into the game, into the seventh inning.

With one out in the inning, and a no-hitter eight outs away, up came shortstop Carlos Guillen, who began the day hitting .500 at home this season, tops in baseball. The switch-hitting Guillen also stepped to the plate with a .500 career average against Arroyo, a factoid that flashed across the outfield scoreboard. Arroyo got ahead, 0 and 1, on Guillen, who had been fed a steady diet of off-speed stuff in his previous at-bats. He and catcher Jason Varitek settled on the latter, a 78-mile- per-hour curveball. Guillen hit a hanger down the line in right, and the ball disappeared over an oddly shaped piece of outfield fencing. There's a section of outfield wall that is a foot or two lower than the rest of the fence, and the ball left the park there, barely clearing the 330-foot sign. The home run tied the game at 1-1, the Sox having scored in the second inning on a Ramon Vazquez RBI single up the middle off Detroit starter Jason Johnson.

Until Guillen's homer, Arroyo hadn't come all that close to allowing a hit. In the second inning, Dmitri Young hit a liner to deep center that Johnny Damon had to jump a bit to catch. In the fifth, Millar made a noteworthy but somewhat routine play on a one- hop smash by Carlos Pena. The batter after Pena in the fifth, Marcus Thames, had the best chance to that point to break up the no-hit bid, when he hooked a fly ball down the left-field line. Jay Payton was playing in place of Manny Ramirez, who finally got a day off, and the athletic Payton ran down the ball.

Arroyo has never thrown a no-hitter in the big leagues but did toss a perfect game with Triple A Pawtucket Aug. 10, 2003. The one mistake, on the homer, severely jeopardized Arroyo's chance, and the team's, for a win. The Sox hit just .225 (10 for 45) in the series with runners in scoring position, leaving 40 men on base in four games, and were just 1 for 8 yesterday.

But David Ortiz came up with the big hit, a ninth-inning, two out double off Ugueth Urbina that one-hopped off the base of the wall in straightaway center. Trot Nixon (four hits) made Ortiz's at- bat possible by singling to center. Urbina, who pitched two innings, allowing four hits and a run, made what looked to be a good pitch down low to Ortiz that he managed to drive more than 400 feet to send Nixon home.

Keith Foulke saved it with a 1-2-3 ninth, his seventh save in eight opportunities this season. But yesterday was just the fourth time in 14 appearances this year that Foulke did not allow either a hit or walk. All three of his outs were fly outs.

Arroyo, meanwhile, was the strikeout attraction. The spindly breaking ball artist fanned a season-high eight, a couple of which demonstrated just how deceiving he can be. In the sixth, Omar Infante took a three-quarter swing and looked thoroughly flustered after missing a 77-mile-per-hour breaking ball. Then in the seventh, Pena, after seeing so much breaking stuff all day, looked overmatched by a 91-m.p.h. fastball away. Arroyo improved to a team-best 4-0, lowered his ERA to 3.18, and is 9-0 since his last regular-season loss, Aug. 15, 2004. Since then, the team is 14-1 when he starts in the regular season.

Edgar Renteria saw all of one pitch yesterday. At bat with Jason Varitek on second base in the second inning, the Sox shortstop attempted to bunt but fouled off the pitch. As he did so, the ball nicked the nail on his right index finger, badly bruising it and forcing him out of the game. He visited a local hospital for X-rays that showed no damage.

Johnny Damon singled to left in the seventh, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, best current streak in the American League. In those 12 games, he's batting .388 (26 for 67) with 10 runs scored, 13 RBIs, and seven extra-base hits.