Mets Finally Start Hitting the Apple, Win, 7-1 : Ojeda, Back to Wall, Beats Boyd, Red Sox

Bob Ojeda, returning to Fenway to meet his master, faced off against Dennis Boyd, the combustible Oil Can, in Game 3 of the World Series Tuesday night and they packed away the radar guns and brought out the Rorschach tests. Never mind the 33,595 baseball fans in the stands. Is there a psychiatrist in the house?

Any way you looked at it, there was flammable material on the pitcher’s mound. Would Ojeda, an 18-game winner in his first season with the New York Mets, cower and wither at the very sight of the Wall? Would Boyd, whose every pitch is a new adventure, take the Boston Red Sox to heights or plights previously unexplored.

Two hours before the first pitch, Davey Johnson, the Met manager, said he had an idea.

Johnson considered the aura of Oil Can and said: “I don’t think he’s in the top five in the league in poise. He’s his own worst enemy at times. I’d really like to see Oil Can go through a lot of his antics--when he gets runners on base and when umpires start missing some strike calls.

“I want to see what he’ll do then. We want to chase him early.”

Then Oil Can went out to pitch the first inning. He surrendered a home run and three singles before he got an out. He fell behind, 4-0, before his teammates took their first at-bat.

Final score: Mets 7, Red Sox 1.

It won’t go down in World Series annals with Babe Ruth’s called shot, but Johnson’s pregame forecast was a nice piece of work. Once Boyd got past the first inning, he settled into the kind of groove that earned him 16 wins during the regular season.

But, oh, that first inning. . . .

The Mets had failed to produce a single extra-base hit in the first two games at Shea Stadium, which was a pretty good reason why the Mets arrived at Fenway Park down in games, 2-0, in the best-of-seven series. But on Boyd’s third pitch Wednesday, Len Dykstra jacked the ball just inside the foul pole and into the right-field seats. Home run.

Yes, it was true. The Mets had, at last, broken through.

“More or less, that broke the ice,” Gary Carter said. “In Games 1 and 2, we were always behind. And during the whole National League playoffs, we led only once, in Game 2.

“Lenny got us going right away.”

And, he helped the Mets get to Boyd right away.

Obviously shaken, Boyd gave up singles to Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez and a run-scoring double to Carter. Boyd was down, 2-0, before he got the game’s first out.

Then, when he required a defensive bailing the most, the Red Sox choked.

With Hernandez on third base and Carter on second, Ray Knight hit a squibber down the third-base line. Wade Boggs fielded it and immediately had Hernandez caught in a rundown. Boggs threw to catcher Rich Gedman, who ran Hernandez back toward third--all the way past Boggs.

Hernandez dived for the bag, and Gedman flipped to shortstop Spike Owen, who was backing up the rundown. No play at third. So Owen turned toward second and saw Carter hung up between bases. Owen tried to run down Carter.

At the same moment, Hernandez took a few steps toward home. This confused Owen, who stood on the infield dirt, his head whirling. Hernandez retreated to third, and Carter slid back into second. All runners safe.

There were no errors on the play, but it was a comedy nonetheless. The Marx Brothers go to the World Series.

“A basic fundamental mistake,” was how Boston Manager John McNamara described it. “We had two guys hung up. Owen, instead of turning his back on (Hernandez), should have thrown the ball to (second baseman Marty) Barrett. Barrett had both runners in his view. Owen only had one. That’s where the mistake was made.”

Boyd does not thrive when confronted by such adversity. Danny Heep followed with a two-run single, and the Mets had jumped to a quick 4-0 lead.

If Ojeda had any qualms about pitching again in Fenway--where the Green Monster seemed to have been named in his honor--those qualms were immediately quelled. During his six-year Red Sox career, Ojeda’s Fenway complex had been well-documented. Asked Monday about his success at the park, Ojeda answered tersely: “Well, they traded me.”

And, before he reappeared Tuesday night, they taunted Ojeda. Boyd said: “I think I will get him because he’s not comfortable out there.”

Boyd also said of the Mets: “I feel I am going to master them.”

Dykstra responded to that, first with his bat and then with his mouth.

“We did read that,” Dykstra said. “I definitely read it. I didn’t take too kindly to it. The only one who got mastered tonight was him.”

The four-run first inning accomplished that. The Mets knocked the cockiness out of Boyd--and knocked the nerves out of Ojeda, who limited his ex-teammates to five hits and one run in seven innings.

“They just played into Bobby Ojeda’s hands,” Carter said. “Once he got that four-run cushion, he set a tempo for himself. I know if there were any nerves out there before the game, he was put at ease.

“Bobby was able to pitch a little easier and concentrate on throwing offspeed pitches. That’s his game, that’s why he was 18-5.”

Said Johnson: “He didn’t get rattled at all. There were a couple of borderline pitches that didn’t go his way and it didn’t bother him at all. He showed why he’s been my most consistent pitcher.”

Ojeda tried to shrug off all the pregame speculation that his old nemesis, The Wall, was out there . . . lurking . . . waiting for him.

“Things like that, I don’t pay attention to,” he said.

Oh yeah? When someone asked Ojeda if pitching again at Fenway was “a bittersweet experience,” Ojeda got himself all worked up.

“Bittersweet means nothing,” he snapped. “I played for the New York Mets all season. See this jacket? It reads ‘New York Mets.’ We won 108 games together. The last thing I feel is anything bittersweet.

“This is competition. This is man against man. There is no feeling sorry for the other competitor. These are professional men and everybody wants to knock their socks off.”

Or Sox.

McNamara admitted the moment at hand may have gotten the best of Boyd, the excitable one. After the first inning, Boyd pitched five scoreless innings before weakening to allow two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth.

“His adrenaline was flowing,” McNamara said, putting it diplomatically. “Rich Gedman told me he was getting (the ball) too much over the plate in the first inning. He was pumped up.”

And Boyd was still revved up after the Mets had closed the series gap to 2-1.

“I still think we’re going to win this before seven games,” Boyd said.

So far, the home team is 0-3. Johnson, whose team lost the first two, had said during Tuesday’s batting practice that he hoped the change of scenery would bring about other changes.

“We could really use a nice laugher tonight,” Johnson said. “That would be right what the doctor ordered.”

Several hours later, Johnson was asked if he got what he wanted.

Johnson nodded.

“That was a laugher,” he said. “That was very enjoyable for me.”