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REVERSING THE CURSE, PART 4 ...
THE
HENRY, WERNER & LUCCHINO
ERA BEGINS
Manny Ramirez leads the Sox
who
pound down the Orioles
May 1, 2002 ... With
five RBIs and two homers, Manny Ramirez, who tied for the American
League lead in RBIs (31), overcame a couple of blips in the field to
lead the Red Sox to a 15-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles, ending the
homestand on a high note. Manny got help from Nomar Garciaparra
(three RBIs), Jose Offerman (on base his first five times with four
hits and two RBIs), Rey Sanchez (three hits), a two-run homer by
Brian Daubach, and a homer by Trot Nixon on a night when the offense
(16 hits) rallied for the human Martinez.
Pedro, who
had not given up a run in two starts against the Orioles (13 innings), improved
to 4-0, but the 33,274 on hand didn't see the Best of Pedro - only visages of
the vintage Pedro. He lasted five innings, allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, 3 runs, and
striking out five. He threw 89 pitches. And with a six-run lead at the time, the
Sox decided to save his arm. In 13 1/3 innings at Fenway, he's allowed 14 earned
runs for a 9.45 ERA, as opposed to 21 scoreless innings on the road.
With
Offerman (walk) and Garciaparra (single) on base, Orioles starter Sean Douglass
left a changeup over the meat of the plate and Ramirez didn't miss it in the
first inning, giving the Sox a 3-0 lead. It was his eighth homer.
Pedro
retired the first two batters, but designated hitter David Segui lined a double
to left-center before he bore down and struck out Jeff Conine. But in the second
inning, Tony Batista ended Pedro's scoreless string at 16 1/3 innings when the
Orioles third baseman belted a 2- 1 offering into the left-field screen. Pedro
followed that up by walking Marty Cordova, but after striking out the
weak-hitting Brook Fordyce, Mike Bordick doubled into the left-field corner,
where Ramirez had problems digging out the ball, which scored Cordova and cut
the deficit to 3-2.
The Sox
followed that with Damonball in the third. Leadoff man Johnny Damon doubled (his
first of two hits), to stretch his hitting streak to 12 games, and advanced to
third when Offerman, looking to sacrifice, beat out a perfectly placed bunt to
the third base side of the mound. Offerman's steal of second drew an errant
throw from Fordyce (the ball landed in center field) and allowed Damon to score
and make it 4-2.
Orioles
skipper Mike Hargrove didn't walk the next batter, Manny, but he ordered
Douglass to pitch around him and the pitcher wound up walking him. With runners
at the corners and the infield drawn in, Daubach lined a single through the gap
between first and second to boost the lead to 5-2.
Offerman had
reached on a walk, a bunt single, a double, and a single to right in his first
four plate appearances. The fourth-inning double put runners at second and third
with two outs (Sanchez had singled with one out), and both scored on Nomar's
single. That was followed by Manny's ninth homer and second on the night, a
335-foot shot to right field, making it 9-3.
The Sox
added their 10th run in the sixth on Nomar's line-drive sacrifice fly to left,
driving in Sanchez, who led off with a single and advanced to third on
Offerman's single.
The Sox, who
got to use Rolando Arrojo, Casey Fossum, and Rich Garces in relief, poured it on
in the eighth with five runs. Nixon homered to right when his liner hit the
railing of the Sox bullpen, and Offerman knocked in two more with a ground ball
single up the middle through a drawn-in infield before Daubach, who had crushed
two outs to right field, got all of a fastball and knocked it into the
right-field bleachers. |
