Nothing Is Short With Garciaparra at Cleanup

BOSTON —  Is last year’s rookie of the year in the American League this year’s most valuable player?

It would be hard to debate the selection of Nomar Garciaparra, the Boston Red Sox shortstop of whom General Manager Dan Duquette said Saturday:

“He combines power, grace and an uncanny ability to hit when it counts. A lot of players have the tendency to hit homers when their team is ahead, 10-0 or 12-2, but Nomar hits them in the ninth inning of tie games.”

The Red Sox didn’t require that Saturday. Pedro Martinez improved to 18-4 with a 6-1 victory that kept the Sox rolling toward the AL’s wild-card bid and reduced the Angels’ lead over the Texas Rangers in the West to two games.

Jack McDowell, in his third start since returning after three months on the disabled list, lacked the pinpoint precision of his previous two, and that is a concern. He continues to top out at 86 mph, which is only good enough if his command is.

For the Red Sox, burdened by ghosts, the probable playoff opportunity is the big story, but there is also the shot at an historic double:

--Martinez could become the first pitcher to win the Cy Young award in the National and American leagues in successive seasons.

--Garciaparra could become the only player other than Cal Ripken Jr., to go from rookie of the year to MVP, although Fred Lynn won both in a memorable debut with the Red Sox in 1975.

Garciaparra doesn’t want to hear about it.

“I don’t see how you can even pick an MVP in a team sport,” he said. “I can’t drive in 100 runs if no one is on base ahead of me. I’m not going to hit 100 solo home runs. I mean, I’m not thinking about awards. My only goal is to win.”

The Red Sox didn’t, when their shortstop was on the disabled list for 18 days in May. They were 7-8.

Now they are 79-54 and Garciaparra ranks in the top 10 in almost every AL offensive category. He is batting .325 with 27 homers, 102 runs batted in, 285 total bases and a .580 slugging percentage.

The former three-sport star at Bellflower’s St. John Bosco, a first-round selection of the Red Sox from Georgia Tech in 1994, is also the only major league shortstop to bat cleanup on a regular basis. The Red Sox’s attack was struggling in mid-July, and Mo Vaughn--who enjoyed his biggest season batting third ahead of Jose Canseco in 1995--had already expressed displeasure with the cleanup role when Manager Jimy Williams made the switch on July 23, Vaughn moving up a notch and Garciaparra dropping to fourth.

Williams also solidified the lineup by putting Darren Lewis in the leadoff spot, moving John Valentin to No. 2 and inserting Troy O’Leary--who hit his 22nd homer Saturday, the most by a Boston outfielder since Dwight Evans hit 34 in 1987--behind Garciaparra.

The Red Sox are 22-11 since then. Vaughn is batting .333 with 33 homers and 93 RBI overall, and Garciaparra has been even better as a No. 4 hitter than he was as a No. 3, batting .343 with 10 homers and 33 RBI in the 32 games he has played since the switch.

“Who knows?” Williams said. “We might have done even better if we had stayed the way we were, but I think now they all feel good about where they’re hitting.”

Said Garciaparra, who spent most of last year in the leadoff role: “I had the tendency to try and do too much the first couple of days [at cleanup], but now I just try to respond to the situation. Mo is having such a great year that it benefits everyone. I mean, it doesn’t matter if I’m ahead of him or behind him, just so I’m around him. That’s the kind of year he’s having.”

An Angel trip to New York, Boston and Cleveland is a journey though shortstop heaven.

Among the AL’s wonderful array of young players at that position, only Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners and Deivi Cruz of the Detroit Tigers are missing from an excursion spotlighting the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, the Red Sox’s Garciaparra and the Indians’ Omar Vizquel.

There’s also the Angels’ own Gary DiSarcina, having, perhaps, his best overall season. He’s a significant ingredient--on and off the field--in his team’s success.

A diplomatic Larry Bowa, the Angel third base coach and former all-star shortstop with the Philadelphia Phillies, paid homage to DiSarcina, but said:

“Put a gun to my head and I’d tell you that I consider Nomar the best of that group. He has outstanding range, unbelievable arm strength, and he can go to the opposite field and hit the ball out of the park as good as anyone I’ve seen for a guy who is not basically a muscle guy. He also has a flair about him. It’s not arrogance or cockiness, but he just looks like he wants to be the guy at bat with the game on the line or he wants to make the play in a crucial situation.

“This is an offensive era, but all of those guys [Garciaparra, Vizquel, DiSarcina and Jeter] take pride in their defense, play every day and are the glue that holds their teams together. I mean, it’s not a coincidence that they play for the four teams that are either leading their divisions or the wild card, and that’s a tribute to them.”

In the Boston clubhouse, they talk admiringly of Garciaparra’s work ethic and refer to him as a throwback, a player out of another era.

They are paying him in today’s dollars.

After only one season he received a five-year, $23.25-million contract that can go to $42.75 million for seven.

Martinez, who came in trade from the Montreal Expos, received a five-year, $75-million contract that can go to $90 million for six.

A possible MVP and Cy Young winner. The Red Sox might not even have bargained on that.