E-Mail This Article to a Friend Take me out Sox pitchers rock out, tank against the Yanks BY MIKE MILIARD AND CARLY CARIOLI

You already know how this turned out: during last weekend’s homestand with the Yankees, two Red Sox pitchers spent the night before their start on stage with rock bands, and both lost. Sox Nation seems content to blame Bronson Arroyo’s dogshit numbers against the Yankees last Thursday (10 hits, five runs, three homers in five and two-thirds innings) on his late-night Eddie-Vedder-in-training act at Avalon on Wednesday. But a source said, " Theo [Epstein] made damn well sure he [Arroyo] went right home after the performance. And Dr. Steinberg was watching him like a hawk. "

So were the throngs of young women who lurched toward the stage prior to his arrival and shrieked when omnipresent Johnny Damon (just back from the All-Star game) flashed a peace sign from the VIP balcony above. Arroyo’s coming-out party — for his grunge-covers CD, Covering the Bases — was also a tie-in with the ESPY Awards, which were being taped concurrently in Los Angeles. Although the ESPYs weren’t broadcast until Sunday, the crowd watched the ceremony on a big screen. As Curt Schilling accepted the Sox’ " Best Team " award, the audience at Avalon was projected behind him on the telecast.

Flanked by a line-up that included former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez and John Cougar Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aaronoff, Arroyo played to the ladies: placing his hand over his heart, running his fingers through his blond, un-cornrowed mane, and hiking his tight jeans while trying not to flirt. The set comprised competently crooned alt-rock-lite numbers by the Goo Goo Dolls ( " Slide " ), Foo Fighters ( " Everlong " ), and Temple of the Dog ( " Hunger Strike " ). The closer was " Dirty Water, " and Arroyo brought up teammates Damon, Kevin Youklis, and Lenny DiNardo, not to mention original Standells singer Dick Dodd, who seemed to be having more fun than anyone.

On Friday night, the memory of Arroyo’s abysmal showing was voided by the Sox’s 17-1 demolition of the Yanks, but Saturday afternoon, the home-town team fell again, 7-4. Less than an hour after the loss, as a stage was hastily erected along the first-base line for a benefit concert, Epstein told a reporter that Arroyo wouldn’t be a big-leaguer if he didn’t know how to manage his time. He said this knowing that Sunday evening’s starter, Tim Wakefield, was scheduled to spend the night playing guitar with a bunch of local rock stars — albeit for a good cause, in this case Theo and brother Paul Epstein’s " A Foundation To Be Named Later. " In any case, it was clear that baseball and rock mix easily, on and off the field. In the dugout Ben Kweller posed for photos; in the tunnel Fenway Recordings honcho and Mission of Burma manager Mark Kates talked music and baseball with Eric Van, a Burma superfan who recently became a consultant to the Sox. In the home team’s dressing room, Yes, Dear’s Mike O’Malley tried to coax Denis Leary into coming on stage (he did, eventually, with middle fingers extended) while Juliana Hatfield and the Fountains of Wayne guys lounged on a bench. And in the on-deck circle, ESPN’s Peter Gammons reminisced that one of his first published pieces of journalism was a review of a Traffic album in the nascent Rolling Stone.

" It was cool being in the dugout, " the Gentlemen’s Mike Gent said from the stage. " Smells like puke down there though. " Then Gammons got up with an all-star outfit that included Gent and Tim Wakefield, who played acoustic guitar and wore a straw hat. Gammons has recently switched from Les Pauls to Stratocasters at the urging of an old friend from Inman Square named George Thorogood. He wrote several songs in spring training this year; " She Fell from Heaven, " which he played at Fenway, was written less than a month ago. " It might be the first song to use ‘Karl Rove’ as a verb, " he noted. Epstein, holding a Gibson SG, sat in with Buffalo Tom; he seemed stuck on the G chord, but given the material, it wasn’t much of a hindrance. Arroyo did an encore, playing acoustic guitar and singing by himself. " This is more nerve-racking than pitching against the Yankees, " he said. It occurred to some of us that this might be part of his problem. Thirteen-year-old girls with " Arroyo " stitched on their shorts begged for autographs. So did a platinum-blonde punk-rocker with the Sox logo tattoo’d on her biceps. In the middle of a line from " Radiation Vibe " — " I went to Pittsburgh and joined a pro team " — Fountains of Wayne singer Chris Collingwood stopped singing and noted, " I just remembered that’s where Tim Wakefield is from. They traded him too. " Next day, Wakefield was tagged for three home runs and the Sox lost 5-3.

Mike Miliard | mmiliard[a]phx.com

Carly Carioli | ccarioli[a]phx.com