Saunders never let them see him sweat

BOSTON -- Thirty-nine games left, Seattle grabbing at their stirrups, power flickering in their dugout, heads swiveling in their bullpen, massive expectations on their chests, and you know something?

I’d give the ball to the guy with the sweaty palms.

I’d give it to the guy who leads the league in rosin bag possession time, his papal mound presence marked by constant puffs of white smoke.

I’d give it to the guy whose teammates say he prefers a fist pump to a handshake, and who can blame him?

I’d give it to Joe Saunders, who suffers from a medical condition that causes his hands to profusely perspire.

Judging from his performance in Sunday’s 3-1 Angels win over the Boston Red Sox, nobody is cooler.

“I guess my hands have a mind of their own,” he said with a grin after perhaps the biggest, calmest Angels start this season.

He was harassed by fans while standing on the mound. His mother and friends were booed while sitting in the stands.

His manager yelled at the opposing pitcher. The umpire blew a big call at first base. Benches cleared and a fight nearly erupted.

One inside fastball could have cause chaos. One mindless curveball could have caused angst.

A clunker such as the ones thrown this weekend by John Lackey and Jered Weaver would have ruined a game that the Angels needed to break even in this high-stakes duel between teams with the best records in baseball.

Instead, Saunders threw two hours of 92-mph calm.

His left arm stayed dry, his mind stayed clear and the Red Sox stayed baffled as Saunders allowed just one run and six hits in 7 2/3 innings.

Just an extraordinary Joe.

Afterward, so accustomed to life in the minor leagues, where he has spent most of his six professional years, Saunders didn’t initially stick around to talk to the media. Instead, he walked outside the clubhouse to hang out with his family.

“I didn’t see any reporters right away, so I thought they wanted to talk to someone else,” he said.

His guests included his visiting mother, who wore a threadbare lucky Angels T-shirt and, before the game, properly informed those sitting in her section of her relationship to him.

They still booed her.

But then ushers allowed her to move to a better seat to take one picture of Joe making his first Fenway Park appearance.

“So I’d say they were nice,” said Mary Ellen Saunders, who traveled here from her Silver Springs, Md., home.

Nicer, still, is Saunders’ 7-1 record and 3.25 earned-run average in 11 major-league starts this season.

He’s not overpowering like Lackey, or as wily as Weaver, or as magical as Ervin Santana, or as diversified as Kelvim Escobar, or as experienced as Bartolo Colon.

But he is as collected and steady as any of those higher-regarded Angels pitchers.

And even with Red Sox Nation beating heat upon him Sunday as it watched the New York Yankees whittle the East Division lead to four games, he did not beat himself.

He threw first-pitch strikes to 12 of his 27 hitters. He didn’t give up the big hit, all six of the Red Sox knocks against him being singles. He struck out seven, walked two and ended this exclamation point with a question.

Why is Joe Saunders the pitcher who is always going to be traded for a veteran hitter?

Why is he never mentioned as one of the Angels’ key September parts?

Why, as the only left-hander in the rotation, is he seemingly never mentioned as a possible postseason starter?

After Escobar and Lackey, who is a better bet?

“I think he’s making footprints in our rotation,” said Manager Mike Scioscia.

The mark he left Sunday was a deep one.

“We had to win this game,” Saunders said. “I want the ball in these kinds of games.”

He’s pitched only in parts of a couple of big league seasons, but, as a former first-round draft pick from Virginia Tech, he is already 26, and seems clearly ready.

“I’d love to prove it in October, I just need the chance,” he said.

From his walk to his smile, his serene confidence seems to ooze from his pores like, well, the liquid on his palms.

“Just talking about it makes them sweat,” he said, holding out his hand as evidence. “Like I said, I use plenty of rosin.”

Saunders, whose condition was revealed recently in a story by the Riverside Press-Enterprise, said doctors have offered to perform a procedure that could reduce the sweat, but he has refused.

Said Saunders: “I don’t want them messing around with something as valuable as my hands.”

Said his mother: “He’s been pitching with the condition since he was 8, and he’s done just fine, so why make any changes now?”

Saunders has traveled between Anaheim and triple-A Salt Lake City so much the last two years, his mother never makes plane reservations to visit him until the last moment. In fact, she didn’t buy her tickets for Boston until Friday.

This is what happens when your son is not an overpowering pitcher in an organization that is enamored with them.

But handed a two-run lead before he threw a pitch Sunday, Saunders threw the most powerful pitch in the game.

Strike one.

He retired the side in the first inning with the help of three first-pitch strikes, then allowed no more than one single in an inning for the rest of the day.

This year, he was confident enough to wear a Virginia Tech cap on the mound to honor those who died in this spring’s campus slayings.

On Sunday, after explaining his sweat condition to a questioner, he was still confident enough to shake hands.

Yeah, a pennant-race ball would fit nicely in his left one.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.