THE RAYS and A ONE WAY
TICKET TO "MANNY-WOOD" ...
Papi and Manny slug the Rangers

April 19, 2008 ... The Red Sox have what nobody else in baseball has: the most powerful 3-4 punch in the game in David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. And when they are clicking at the same time, there's no hope for the Joaquin Benoits.

With the Sox trailing, 3-2, in the eighth inning, Ortiz busted the Rangers' shift with a scorching ball that Ian Kinsler couldn't handle in short right-center, scoring Dustin Pedroia to tie it. Then Ramirez, who is in an incredible zone, hit one so far into the night that it was sickening, a two-run homer, his sixth of the year and 496th overall, to give the Sox a 5-3 lead that Jonathan Papelbon protected in the ninth before a post-World War II record crowd of 37,958 at Fenway.

As the late Ned Martin would have uttered, "Mercy!"

The rally was made possible by Pedroia's one-out double off the Wall. Ortiz, who was hitting .111 (7 for 63) before busting out Friday night with a third-inning grand slam, appears to be making his way back to Big Papi status. With first base open, Texas manager Ron Washington pitched to him, not wanting to see Ramirez with two base runners.

Jon Lester gave the Sox 6 1/3 innings and allowed three runs. He left trailing, 3-2. It was Lester's second-longest outing in five starts and a great improvement over his last start, in which he went 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs and five walks against Cleveland April 14 (a 6-4 Boston win), and the one April 9, when he lasted 5 1/3 and gave up four runs and four walks in a 7-2 loss to Detroit. Terry Francona could have done without the 10 hits the Rangers pounded, but at least Lester reduced his walk total to two after walking 15 in his first four starts.

Lester will always be under a microscope. He was one of the major pieces offered to the Twins for Johan Santana this winter. In the end, the Twins elected not to bite on Boston's offer and the Red Sox seemed content to keep their young lefthander. Both Lester and Clay Buchholz are vulnerable for demotion if they don't pick up their performances. Lester picked his up to some degree last night.

Until the eighth, the Sox' offense couldn't solve Texas starter Jason Jennings, who allowed two first-inning runs, then zeroes the rest of the way until his departure after six innings. Jamey Wright silenced the Sox in the seventh.

The hardest pitch Lester threw, a 93-mile-per-hour fastball, fell into the Monster seats off the bat of Josh Hamilton with two outs in the first inning. Lester allowed three more hits in the second inning for a run. In the third inning, he allowed three straight hits, singles to Hamilton and Hank Blalock and a run-producing double to Jason Botts, giving the Rangers a 3-2 lead. After Farrell came out to reinforce the young lefthander's confidence, Lester struck out David Murphy and Gerald Laird to wiggle out of further harm.

The Red Sox had taken a 2-0 lead in the first off Jennings, who was 0-3 with an 8.79 ERA and hadn't pitched beyond the fifth inning in his previous three starts. Ortiz knocked into a 4-6-3 double play, but it scored leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury, who led off with a double to right-center and advanced to third on Jennings's throwing error on Pedroia's bunt. After Ramirez walked, Kevin Youkilis stroked a double, scoring Ramirez from first base.

Lester couldn't quite smooth out. He got two quick outs in the fourth, but then walked leadoff man Kinsler and surrendered a single to Michael Young before inducing a ground out to first baseman Sean Casey by Hamilton. His last batter in the seventh, Blalock, singled to center on Lester's 107th pitch, which brought on Manny Delcarmen, who made things interesting by walking Murphy before striking out Laird on a 95-m.p.h. fastball on a 3-and-2 count.

Mike Timlin put a couple of men on in the top of the eighth, but he got Michael Young to foul out to Youkilis before Javier Lopez retired Hamilton on a hard liner to center field.

The Sox had their chance to tie or take the lead in the seventh, but Julio Lugo continued to engender angst from fans, knocking into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play after the Sox had runners at first and second. No worries. The best 3-4 combo in baseball was clicking when it counted most.

Jonathan Papelbon has an 0.57 ERA in 29 April appearances, allowing just 14 hits with 44 strikeouts and compiling a 23-for-23 record in save chances.