THE RAYS and A ONE WAY
TICKET TO "MANNY-WOOD" ...
Exciting end in Cincinnati

June 14, 2008 ... The Red Sox visited Cincinnati for the first time since 1975 (when Pete Rose Way was a style of play and not the name of a street), with the Reds proudly showing off their World Series trophy from that season, and Johnny Bench parks out in front of Great American Ball Park, signing autographs.

The stakes were different, but the game was a keeper, the Sox prevailing, 6-4, in 10 innings on consecutive home runs by Kevin Youkilis and Coco Crisp after the Reds, down to their last strike, tied it on Edwin Encarnacion's home run off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth.

The Sox scored their first two runs on a catcher's overthrow and a wild pitch, had a runner steal a base against them and get caught stealing on the same play, had a 600-home run hitter ground into a rally-killing double play on a 3-and-0 pitch, then won with back-to-back home runs in extra innings, something that had happened just three times before in club history.

The Sox were playing without David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez for only the second time this season. They were down one more bat because they were in a National League park, which means no DH.

And they did prevail. Jacoby Ellsbury created a run by singling, taking second on a wild pitch, stealing third and scoring when Reds catcher Paul Bako threw the ball into left field. They scored their next run when J.D. Drew, who just missed two home runs, tripled and scored on a wild pitch, and a third run when they strung together three hits, the first an infield hit by Dustin Pedroia, who has been fighting a slump but had two hits yesterday.

Wakefield, meanwhile, gave the Sox seven strong innings for the fourth straight start, limiting the opposition to two or fewer runs in each of those starts. He also showed his court awareness in the second when he alertly covered third when Phillips stole second against an overshifted Sox defense and tried to take what he thought was an unoccupied base. Wakefield tagged Phillips out.

The Sox looked like they had this one safely in hand when they scored a run in the eighth off David Weathers, Drew doubling and scoring on Mike Lowell's single to make it 4-2. The advantage could have been even bigger when Youkilis followed with a double to center, but third base coach DeMarlo Hale gambled and sent Lowell with no outs, and he was cut down at the plate.

That decision looked even more costly when Hideki Okajima gave up a broken-bat single and walk and Javier Valentin hit Delcarmen's first pitch for an RBI single, with Griffey, who hit his 600th home run just five days earlier, coming to the plate.

Delcarmen's first three pitches were wide, but he said he'd been alerted to the possibility that Griffey might not be taking. In 2005, Griffey had put three balls in play on a 3-and-0 count, and all three went for hits, two for home runs. Since then, he's 1 for 9 when swinging on 3-and-0, including the ground ball that Pedroia turned for a double play, then ran into the dugout, pumping his fist.

An even better one when the Sox recovered from the shock of Encarnacion taking Papelbon deep, Youkilis hitting his 11th home run of the season, and Crisp following with his first homer in more than a month (May 11), both off reliever Mike Lincoln and both landing almost in the same spot in the center-field bleachers.

Craig Hansen recorded his first big-league save, though not without some anxious moments, Jolbert Cabrera singling with two outs, then strolling to third against an overshifted defense while Griffey walked. When Hansen went ball one to Brandon Phillips, who already had hit one of the Reds' two home runs off Tim Wakefield (Adam Dunn had the other), pitching coach John Farrell went to the mound.