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MANNY RAMIREZ |
THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
The Sox wait out the Blue Jays to win
May 22, 2004 ... Once
starter Ted Lilly was yanked with two outs in the sixth after he'd struck out 10, not long after he'd allowed a mammoth two-run tying home run to Manny Ramirez, it was only a matter of time before the Red Sox got the better of the embattled Toronto relief corps for the second straight night.
While it was a Martinez who earned the decision in a 5-2 Red Sox win, which moved them 1 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees in the American League East, it was Anastacio, making his major league debut with one scoreless inning of relief, who got the victory, not Pedro, who
left a 2-2 game after six innings.
You can credit Mark Bellhorn twice. Once, for weakening Lilly by lining a single off his left leg in the sixth, producing a golf ball sized knot, and then for driving in the go-ahead run with a bases- loaded single through the shortstop hole in the seventh off
lefthanded reliever Jason Kershner. Lilly denied that the injury affected how he pitched to Ramirez, but he did concede that it stiffened up on him and he would have been unable to come out for the seventh.
Lilly had retired Ramirez on a first-inning double play and fourth-inning strikeout. The Sox slugger had entered the game hitting .467 (7 for 15, two home runs) against Lilly. With the count 1 and 1, Lilly did exactly what Micheal Nakamura had done the night before - he
left a lazy breaking pitch over the plate that Ramirez turned around in a hurry. It was Ramirez's 11th home run of the season and 358th of his career, tying Yogi Berra for 62nd on the all-time list.
Sox relievers pitched three scoreless innings, one each from Anastacio Martinez, Alan Embree, and Keith Foulke, who earned his ninth save. The question with Pedro Martinez, who occasionally registered 91- 92 miles per hour on the radar gun, was whether his curveball
would be effective in the cold weather. The crowd was bundled up as if it were a late-November football game at Gillette Stadium rather than a late-May game at Fenway.
The Sox struck out 12 times last night, marking the 11th time this season they have struck out 10 or more times in a game. Kevin Youkilis recorded his first Fenway Park hit, a seventh-inning single.
Trot Nixon will start playing the outfield again tomorrow in Fort Myers, Fla. Francona also said that Ramiro Mendoza (shoulder tendonitis) is making "sluggish progress." Ellis Burks said he will begin to jog again as early as tomorrow after suffering a setback to
his surgically repaired left knee last week. Burks experienced pain and swelling and had to back off, but still feels he's about two weeks away from being activated. |
