Red Sox, Ramirez check Mariners
BOSTON – The Seattle Mariners clubhouse was full of talk about a controversial check swing.
Lots of Mariners wore long faces wondering how Manny Ramirez would have fared had a strike been called instead of a ball during his crucial eighth-inning at-bat. Instead, a team that had won 7 of 8 games, learned the hard way what the Boston Red Sox slugger can do when he’s given a hitter’s count.
The hurt lingered after an 8-7 loss Thursday night at Fenway Park for a Mariners team beginning a stretch of road games that could define this club. And Ramirez’s second home run of the night, which snapped a tie score in that eighth, didn’t hurt nearly as much as the opportunity squandered much earlier by Mariners starter Horacio Ramirez and company.
“It just wasn’t going my way today,” Ramirez summed up glumly.
That statement was one of the rare times all night an erratic Ramirez hit the mark. The way this game began, few in the crowd of 37,216 at Fenway Park could have figured Mariners reliever Chris Reitsma would be facing Boston slugger Ramirez with the game on the line in that eighth inning.
But strange things happen at this ballpark with the wind blowing out, even after an inning like Thursday’s first, in which the Mariners scored five runs on only two hits off Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K was rolling nothing but snake-eyes that frame as he walked three batters, hit another, saw his shortstop drop a pair of balls and threw 35 pitches.
But the M’s express slowed even before pitcher Ramirez gave back his 5-0 lead in the second inning. Seattle’s free-swingers allowed Matsuzaka through the top of the second on only 10 more pitches, then only 10 more in the third to help him get through five frames and steady a Red Sox club staggered early.
Ramirez had tossed away his advantage in a long second inning in which he walked leadoff hitter Kevin Youkilis. But the walk that truly hurt came three singles later, when Ramirez put .172-hitting Dustin Pedroia on base by throwing four straight balls.
Julio Lugo followed with a ground-rule double to right center. Toss in a bloop single by David Ortiz and the game was tied.
Two innings later, Ramirez tagged one over the fabled Green Monster in left for a two-run homer to put Boston up 7-5.
Mariners manager Mike Hargrove didn’t have tired closer J.J. Putz available and had to manage his bullpen sparingly with the score tied. He got two solid frames out of Julio Mateo and nearly two more from Reitsma before Ramirez checked his swing on a 2-1 pitch with two out and none on in the eighth.
The appeal to first-base umpire Tom Hallion went nowhere. Instead of a 2-2 count – letting Reitsma perhaps put a sinker in the dirt for Ramirez to chase – it became a hitter-favored 3-1.
Ramirez took the next offering for a strike. But Reitsma’s full-count pitch caught far too much plate and was driven into the right field bleachers for Ramirez’s 475th career blast.