Two walks keep Manny at bay - for a little while
LOS ANGELES - One night later, Manny Ramirez had nothing bad to say about Shane Victorino. There were no sparks trailing from the words the Los Angeles Dodgers' slugger summoned when asked about how Game 4 turned from a celebration to something closer to a wake.
"I think tonight, everybody battled, played their hearts out, out there," Ramirez said after going 2-for-2 with three walks, but ending his offensive evening on third base when Brad Lidge retired James Loney for the final out in the eighth. "What happened tonight is over. They took the game out of our hands. We're got to come out hungry Wednesday, because that's it - win or go home.
YONG KIM / Staff photographer
Manny Ramirez didn't get many swings against Joe Blanton.
"Victorino, he hit a great pitch. [Matt] Stairs, you know, out of the bench, pretty good hitter. They took advantage and took the game."
Joe Blanton pitched around Ramirez the first two times No. 99 came up last night, much to the frustration of the Dodger Stadium Manny-lovers in their dreadlocked wigs, who had come to see their midseason acquisition lead them to a National League Championship Series tie.
The first walk was straightforwardly intentional, the second was more a matter of giving baseball's best hitter nothing he could do damage with. But the third time Ramirez sauntered to the plate, Phillies starter Blanton had runners on second and third and nobody out in the fifth inning, the Phils up 2-1, and after a mound conference that involved just about everyone in the organization this side of Pat Gillick, it was deemed prudent to throw Ramirez an actual strike.
Oops. The first-pitch soft liner kissed down in front of Pat Burrell in left, and even though Burrell got everything behind a perfect throw home, he didn't quite nip Rafael Furcal with the tying run.
The Dodgers were off to the races, at least until the Phils started crushing bombs in the eighth. This was not the Joe Blanton who closed out the NLDS. But one thing about that - there was no Manny in Milwaukee.
It was not the first time Ramirez had bested Blanton. He came into the night 14-for-25 with eight RBI lifetime against the righthander, a record we can assume led to the early walks.
Had either of his two clutch hits led to a win, it might have blunted Ramirez' displeasure over being fined a reported $2,500 by Major League Baseball for Game 3's Jets vs. Sharks posturing. Somehow, seven people from the two teams were fined for restraining one another and jawing a lot.
To the towel-waving crowd, the heroes and villains from the incident were clear last night - cheer Manny wildly, boo Victorino heartily. And the game seemed to reflect that morality play, until Victorino one-upped Ramirez, homering into the Phils' bullpen against young reliever Cory Wade, whom Joe Torre praised before the game as being "very effective vs. lefthanders." That proved to be an even bigger "oops" than the Ramirez-post-mound-conference hit.
Ramirez was walked on purpose again in the sixth, then came up with two outs and nobody on in the eighth, right after Andre Ethier hit into a doubleplay. Charlie Manuel brought in Brad Lidge for J.C. Romero, though Charlie had a problem with the bullpen phone system and ended up summoning Lidge with some sort of hat-waving semaphore. It couldn't have been all that hard to discern what he wanted.
The closer gave up a double just right of dead center, on a 3-2 pitch, bringing up catcher Russell Martin.
"With a two-run lead, I'm going to challenge Manny," Lidge said. "I actually threw the fastball right down the middle, which is not what you want to do."
Martin got to first and Manny rumbled to third when a swinging strike three took a right turn toward the Dodgers dugout, eluding Carlos Ruiz. But then Loney skied a fly to Burrell.
Ramirez said the Dodgers were not in shock, although he wasn't exactly animated, as he stood in front of a huge pile of used batting gloves that covered the floor of his locker stall. Ramirez said the off day - the Dodgers canceled their planned workout - will help them get ready for a do-or-die Game 5.
"We play hard," he said, in a monotone. "They play better than us." *
