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Ramirez blasts 496th home run, powers Red Sox to win

Apr 20, 2008 - 3:55 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- One night after David Ortiz came through, it was Manny Ramirez's turn.

His two-run blast off the light tower in left propelled the Boston Red Sox past the Texas Rangers, 5-3, at Fenway Park on Saturday night.

On Friday, David Ortiz broke out of a prolonged slump with a grand slam to lead the Red Sox to an 11-3 victory.

"He's going to come through," Ramirez said of Ortiz. "If he doesn't hit, I'm going to come through for him."

Ramirez took his shot Saturday after Ortiz had forged a tie with an RBI single. With Ortiz on first, Ramirez took an 0-1 offering from reliever Joaquin Benoit (1-1) deep over the "Green Monster" in left field for a 5-3 lead.

"In that situation, I'm not trying to do much," Ramirez said. "I'm just trying to get a good pitch to drive and he gave it to me and I did."

It was the 496th homer of his career, moving him within four blasts of becoming the 24th player in major league history to reach 500.

Josh Hamilton homered and scored twice for the Rangers in support of starting pitcher Jason Jennings, who was denied his first win and suffered a tough-luck no decision.

Hamilton connected for his fourth homer of the season when he lined a 1-1 pitch from Jon Lester into the first row of "Green Monster" seats in left.

But the Red Sox responded in the bottom of the inning when Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double. After Jennings mishandled Dustin Pedroia's sacrifice bunt, the Red Sox had runners at first and third and none out. Ellsbury scored on Ortiz's 4-6-3 double play.

Ramirez walked and Kevin Youkilis followed with an RBI double to right-center to give the Red Sox the lead, 2-1.

But Lester surrendered it in the next inning when Adam Melhuse singled home David Murphy. Jason Botts doubled home Hamilton to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead.

Jennings then settled down, retiring 10 straight since walking Ramirez in the third and 13 of the final 14 batters he faced.

"We played a pretty good game," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It just wasn't good enough. We got what we wanted out of Jason. I thought he was outstanding. I thought he kept them off balance. He did exactly what we needed him to do. We got the right people on the mound at the right time. They just rose to the occasion and took it from us."

Benoit could not hold the lead, giving up a game-tying single to Ortiz through the shift, followed by Ramirez's sixth homer of the season, a two-run blast off the light stanchion in left.

"It's a pretty swing isn't it?" Red Sox manager Terry Francona asked rhetorically of Ramirez's home run stroke. "It's just nice to get the game tied. We have (Hideki Okajima) and (Jonathan Papelbon), we're at home. We didn't have the lead for very long, but it was long enough and it was at the right time."

"I thought it was down," Washington said of the fateful pitch. "He doesn't give a darn where it's at. And it wasn't just Boston's Fenway wall that it went over, because if it was any other ball park, I think it was gone, too."

Papelbon came on in the ninth for his sixth save.

"It's pretty impressive what he's doing right now, that guy," Papelbon said of Ramirez. "Regardless of what you say about that guy, he prepares better than anybody and is more focused than anybody as a hitter I've ever seen. That's incredible what he's doing right now."