THE WORLD SERIES : New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox : World Series Notebook : If the Oil Can Was Any Looser, He’d Fall Apart

Monday was an off-day for travel in the Shuttle Series, but the obviously pumped Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd was already on a roll, offering a preview of what his metabolic rate is likely to be tonight when he starts for the Boston Red Sox in World Series Game 3.

“I’m going to be excited, emotional, loose. That’s my nature. That’s what I possess,” Boyd said. “That’s how I go out and take care of my business.”

This was Boyd entertaining a Fenway Park press conference at which he said that he expects to go out there tonight in the mold of a Satchel Paige, wearing his low riders and black shoes with the stripes painted over even though it may cost him his endorsement contract with a shoe company.

“I’m superstitious about my dress code,” he said. “I try to feel relaxed out there. I mean, there’s an old-time feeling that kind of possesses me and takes me back to the ‘30s and ‘40s. I think of myself as Satchel or one of the old-time players from the Negro Leagues with their baggy uniforms. I like the primitive culture of baseball.”

Boyd said he met Paige while attending Jackson State in 1980.

“I was in my junior year of college and I told him how important it was for me to make the big leagues,” he said. “He gave me inspiration and told me to just keep the ball down, move it in and out and drop that yellow hammer and I’d be OK.”

Boyd defined a yellow hammer as his overhand curve. The Can’s repertoire has always seemed secondary to his flamboyance.

Boyd said that Luis Tiant assured him that “you don’t have to be a robot or computer out there,” that “you can let your color and character come out.”

The home field advantage? Boston took it away from New York at Shea Stadium, where the home team got only token help from its fans, according to Ron Darling, who compared the noise level to what the Mets encounter in Montreal.

“That’s how quiet it was,” he said. “We were down 3-2 (Sunday night) and people were sitting on their hands.

“It’s a joke, but then these aren’t our regular fans. These are guys in $500 suits. I think the Mets are going to have to reevaluate their ticket distribution the next time we get in a World Series.

“I don’t want guys out there talking about how much money they’ve made. Give me the guy with the T-shirt, the sweat shirt and the bottle of blackberry brandy.”

The Mets cancelled a Fenway Park workout Monday and Manager Davey Johnson failed to attend the afternoon press conference. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre represented Johnson and gave two reasons for canceling the workout.

“I think that our ballclub is a little tired as our performance on the field shows,” he said. “This gives Dave and the coaches a chance to sit down and evaluate the situation.

“I think we’re in agreement on the fact that we under-evaluated the Boston club a little. We didn’t under-evaluate their lineup, but we may have under-evaluated their pitching some.”

Stottlemyre added that the real New York Met team failed to surface in either of the first two games and that “for us to win we have to start hitting.”

The Red Sox worked out, but Manager John McNamara said it wasn’t something his team needed.

“We’re accommodating you people (the media), that’s the only reason we’re here,” he said.

No one benefited more from the Red Sox’s two-game sweep in New York than Al Nipper, the forgotten man of the Boston pitching staff.

Nipper (10-12, 5.38) was the weak link in the Red Sox’s starting rotation during the regular season--and the missing link during the playoffs. McNamara has gone with only three starting pitchers thus far, forcing Bruce Hurst and Roger Clemens to throw on just three days’ rest.

But now, with a two-game cushion to play with, McNamara has the luxury of pitching Nipper in Game 4 on Wednesday. McNamara made the announcement Monday.

“This will give Hurst, Clemens and Boyd their full complement of rest,” said McNamara, meaning that all three pitchers will receive four days of rest before their next scheduled starts.

Clemens, working on three days’ rest for the third straight time, lasted only 4 innings Sunday night, throwing 81 pitches and yielding 3 earned runs. Excluding his final regular-season start, when he was hit by a line drive during the second inning, it was Clemens’ shortest appearance of the season.

McNamara was asked if Clemens’ performance entered into his decision.

“No, the decision was being two-up,” McNamara said. “Now we can set up our pitching.”

Johnson has indicated he will stay with a three-man rotation of Darling, Dwight Gooden and Bob Ojeda for the rest of the series. Thus, the probable pitching matchups through Game 7 figure to be:

--Game 4: Nipper vs. Darling.

--Game 5: Hurst vs. Gooden.

--Game 6: Clemens vs. Ojeda.

--Game 7: Boyd vs. Darling.

As John Candelaria can tell Ojeda, it isn’t easy being left-handed and having to pitch a significant game at Fenway Park against the Red Sox. Tonight, Ojeda will be trying to buck nearly 70 years of tradition when he starts for the Mets in Game 3.

You have to go all the way back to 1918 to find a left-handed pitcher who beat the Red Sox in postseason play at Fenway. James (Hippo) Vaughn owns that distinction. Pitching for the Chicago Cubs, Vaughn shut out Boston, 3-0, on Sept. 10, 1918, in Game 5 of the World Series.

Tonight, at long last, Don Baylor makes his debut in this World Series, now that the designated hitter rule is in effect for the games at Fenway. This fact has pleased Baylor and many Red Sox.

“I’m happy for him, now that he’s getting a chance,” Dwight Evans said. “He’s a good man. To me, he is managerial material. He does what he says.

“Talk is cheap, but he backs it up. The more I’m around him, the more I like him.”

Said McNamara: “Now we can finally play the lineup that got us here. We’re in good shape.”

Dave Henderson, Mr. October ‘86, was talking about the August trade that rescued him from the Seattle Mariners and eventually landed him in the World Series.

“My first thought was just pack my bags and go,” Henderson said. “It’s one of those things where you’re in fifth or sixth place and you just hope the club can turn around. Then, suddenly, you’re traded and it takes a big load off your mind.

“Fourth place is the best we ever did in Seattle and we were out of the race by the All-Star Game. I smile more now and life is a little easier. I’d be at home working in my basement if I hadn’t been traded.”