Angels Find Out the Oil Can Man Can : The Master of Tantrums Settles Down After Giving Up 2 Runs in First Inning

The Can is happy, downright accommodating, actually. He stands alongside the rising wall bordering Fenway Park’s left-field foul line and signs anything tossed from the stands above. Moments earlier, the ancient scoreboard behind him had read: BOSTON 10, CAL 4.

“Hay, Oil Ca-an, ought-agraph my ha-at,” says one. Oil Can Boyd signs.

“The pennant, ought-agraph the pannant.” Oil Can Boyd signs the pennant.

A corduroy jacket drops beside him. “The ja-acket, Oil Can. Anywhere on the ja-acket.” Oil Can Boyd scribbles his name on the jacket lining.

“I’m outta here,” The Can says.

And there he goes, all 144 pounds of arms and legs and scowl and smile, the same Can who had tamed the demons, not to mention the Angels, for seven innings Tuesday night.

Tacked on The Can’s locker is a photograph of himself. He is on the mound, his face contorted, his right arm cocked to throw. He is wearing his stirrups high on his shins, the material stretched and pulled toward his knees. His black shoes have white stripes.

Then there is The Can of Tuesday night. The face is calm. The stirrups are pushed down, way down toward his ankles. You can see red and black and white. And the white stripes on his shoes are blacked-out with shoe polish. The Can, it seems, is a nostalgia buff.

“When I came into the clubhouse today, I came in with the idea that I was going to wear my all-black shoes,” Boyd says. “The socks just came spontaneously, man. I said, ‘You go out there and just reminisce like you were in Double-A somewhere.’ That’s when I was at my best. Automatic reminiscing.”

Reminisce this: 7 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. By the time he retired to the dugout to the sounds of a standing ovation and shouts of, “Oil Can! Oil Can!” the Red Sox had an 8-3 lead, soon to be 10-3 by the end of the seventh.

Was this the same Can, the master of tantrums, who had pouted and stomped toward the umpires in Game 3 after they had reversed a crucial call in the Red Sox favor? The same Can who can fall to pieces at the first sign of trouble?

“Just comes from the nerves,” he says.

So what gives? The Can gives up two runs in the first inning. He grimaces. He nods his head. Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner visits the mound.

“No matter what you do, we’re behind you,” Buckner says. “You give up four, we’ll score five. You give up five, we’ll score six.”

The Can gets out of the first inning allowing two runs. He allows a single in the second and nothing more. He strikes out two in the third, two more in the fourth and strands two Angel runners.

He gives up another single in the fifth but is aided by a double play. In the sixth, Bobby Grich hits a high pop fly in front of the batter’s box. Catcher Rich Gedman looks for the ball. The Can points upward. Gedman appears unsure of the location, so The Can snares the ball with practiced nonchalance, as if to say, ‘Here, I’ll take this thing.’

Brian Downing hits a home run in the seventh, as if it matters at this point. The Can has proven his point--the pressure didn’t cause his fragile disposition to explode. He survived, prospered even.

“I was just a little bit nervous (in the first inning),” he says. “I started rushing a little bit. At first, the ball felt big in my hand. All together, I felt good out there tonight. I knew what had to be done, which came out to be a win for the Sox, and tied the series.”

Speaking of coming out, The Can came close to making an early departure himself. With one out in the first, he walked Ruppert Jones and then struck out Downing. But then came an RBI-double by Reggie Jackson, and another double by Doug DeCinces, also good for a run. Dick Schofield singled, and to make matters worse for the Red Sox, The Can hit Grich with a pitch.

“I began to rush,” he says.

Red Sox designated hitter Don Baylor says it better. “He was probably a couple of pitches from being taken out the game.”

The Can stays. After 11 pitches to Rob Wilfong (7 foul balls), the Angel second baseman pops to Buckner at first.

“I wanted him to get by the first inning,” Red Sox Manager John McNamara said. “No one has to tell you he’s high-strung.”

Funny thing, but the Oil Can didn’t overheat Tuesday night.