Nails Punches First Hole in Oil Can : Dykstra’s Home Run Signals Beginning of End for Boyd

The kid from Garden Grove wanted to get at Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd almost as much as he had initially wanted to be home Tuesday night, playing the Angels at Anaheim Stadium in Game 3 of the World Series.

Len Dykstra, the New York Mets’ center fielder and catalyst, hadn’t liked what he’d read in the newspapers here Tuesday morning. He hadn’t liked Boyd saying that he expected to master the Mets. Motivational fodder. Nails never really needs any, but:

“I definitely read it and didn’t take too kindly to it,” Dykstra said. “Only one person got mastered, and that was him.”

Dykstra triggered the process when he hit Boyd’s third pitch into the right-field seats.

This one may not have been as stunning as the two-run, ninth-inning homer with which Dykstra won Game 3 of the National League playoffs, but it was not without significance.

The obviously rattled Boyd had no time to slip into his Satchel Paige mode. The hit-hungry Mets went on to build a 4-0 first-inning lead en route to a 7-1 victory, their first of the Series.

The home run?

“I know it was a big lift for us and it may have shaken him (Boyd) up some,” Dykstra said. “His comments definitely gave us some incentive to go out and beat him, though I don’t know why you would need any incentive when you’re down 2-0 in the World Series.”

What the Mets needed most was some offense. They were hitting .190 for eight postseason games and .194 for the Series.

Dykstra, 8 for 29 in the playoffs, was 1 for 6 against the Red Sox, but his home run was just the beginning. He contributed three singles in his four remaining at-bats, two of the hits off Boyd.

The 4-for-5 performance could have only been better if it had come in Anaheim Stadium, 10 minutes from his home.

Maybe even Rod Carew, his boyhood idol, would have been there to see it.

“Sure, I kind of wanted to go home,” Dykstra said. I thought I was, in fact. The Angels had it won and then blew it. Boston battled them all the way. You have to give the Red Sox some credit. The bottom line is that I just wanted to get to the World Series. Whoever we played, we played.”

Though not well in the first two games.

“We won 108 games during the regular season and another four in the playoffs,” Dykstra said. “We had something to prove tonight--to ourselves, to the Red Sox, to everyone in baseball.

“We couldn’t afford to go 0-3 in their park. We couldn’t afford to get behind early again.

“We’d been playing catch-up for the entire postseason and we needed to put some pressure on the other people. We had to wake ourselves, shake ourselves. We definitely came in wired.”

Maybe the unwitting Boyd provided the verbal spark. Maybe Met Manager Davey Johnson’s decision to cancel Monday’s workout helped.

In the wake of the unrelenting pressure of the playoffs, it was the Mets’ first real chance to “relax and think about our situation,” Dykstra said.

“I had a nice dinner, got back to the room in time for the Monday night football game and fell asleep even before the second half started,” he said. “By the time I woke up this morning, I was ready to get outside and get at it.”

Boyd’s comments kept the fire burning, but Dykstra said he also had a talk with himself about another subject.

“I hadn’t been on base in my first at-bat in any of the postseason games,” he said, “and coming to the park in a cab today I told myself that I had to find a way to do it.

“My job is to get things going. The team expects it and I expect it of myself. We needed the lift. I went in thinking that my first at-bat tonight could be a key in what was a very key game for us.”

Said Johnson later: “Nails set the tone with that home run. A hit would have sufficed. The home run was icing.”

Dykstra hit only eight home runs during the regular season. He said later that he never goes up looking for a home run and didn’t this time, either. He merely got a fastball down and in--or, as he said later, right where he likes it.

“Boyd had a good changeup tonight, but his fastball wasn’t popping,” Dykstra said. “I don’t think he had his best stuff. He certainly wasn’t doing much prancing out there. I guess when you’re down 4-0, there’s not much reason to prance.”

Nails didn’t hammer his point by slowing his home-run trot. He quickly returned to the high fives of the dugout, and the ignited Mets went back to work on Boyd.

“It was a thrill for me,” Dykstra said of the home run. “But I think it meant more to the team, considering our situation. I think you’re going to see the real Mets from here out.”

Deep down, he still probably wishes you were seeing them in Anaheim.