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Manny Ramirez's liner leading off the 12th inning hit the wall in right-center with such a thud it knocked the energy out of the sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd.
Standing on second in the bright sunshine, things looked brilliant to the player who Boston desperately tried to trade for Alex Rodriguez in the offseason.
Ramirez ended up scoring on Mark Bellhorn's sacrifice fly, and the Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees 3-2 Saturday, their fifth win in six games this year against their bitter rival.
``For me, I just go out there and play my game. I don't care what people say,'' said Ramirez, who at times in the offseason wanted a trade. ``I'm just trying to do my best for the team. If they give me a pitch to hit I'm going to try to hit it, and today it just kind of worked out.''
Scott Williamson, Alan Embree, Keith Foulke (1-0) and Mike Timlin, who got his first save, held the struggling Yankees' offense without a run for six innings, increasing the bullpen's scoreless streak to 22 2-3 innings.
Boston won despite becoming the first team to go 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position since Pittsburgh in 4-1 loss to San Diego on June 11, 1977, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Red Sox dropped New York to 8-10.
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``Our role is to go out there and hold them,'' Foulke said. ``The guys in the
dugout are going to score some runs.''
The Yankees are 3 1/2 games out of first for the first time since May 15, 2002, when they trailed the Red Sox by four, according to Elias.
``Down on themselves? We can't allow that to happen,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``There's no room for sympathy in this game. I mean you got to go out there and play.''
And the Yankees will have a tough task Sunday as they try to avoid their first sweep by Boston since Sept. 9-12, 1999, when they face Pedro Martinez.
Rodriguez nearly spoiled Boston's day all on his own.
The Red Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead with an assist from Yankees starter Kevin Brown, but Rodriguez brought New York to 2-1 in the fourth inning with his first homer in pinstripes and helped tie it by sparking a seventh-inning rally with a headfirst slide into first, then scoring on Gary Sheffield's single.
A-Rod also possibly saved two runs in the third with a diving stop deep behind third base of Kevin Millar's sharp grounder. He made the throw from foul territory to retire Millar.
AP - Apr 24, 6:53 pm EDT
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The crowd of 55,195 was eerily quiet for much of the game until his slide in
the seventh. Rodriguez got the fans going when he ran hard into the wall chasing
a foul ball behind third base.
After failing to score with the bases loaded against Mariano Rivera in the 11th, the Red Sox got to Paul Quantrill (2-1) in the 12th.
Ramirez hit a leadoff double off the wall in right-center, advanced to third on a groundout and, after Millar was hit by a pitch, scored on Bellhorn's fly to center.
Ramirez has thrived with the Red Sox this season, hitting .380 with 13 RBIs and four home runs. He even checked his temper in the first inning when he was knocked down by a pitch near his head from Kevin Brown. Ramirez bounced onto his feet and, with his hands on hips, glared at Brown.
In Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS, Ramirez touched off the melee that was highlighted by Martinez throwing Don Zimmer to the turf when Roger Clemens' pitch was high, but not close to his head. This time, Ramirez kept his cool, then hit a fly to center that scored Johnny Damon, the first of three sacrifice flies for Boston, who left 14 runners on base.
Boston manger Terry Francona thinks Ramirez changed after the tumultuous offseason.
``We tried to put all that behind us,'' Francona said. ``This guy has been great for us. He may not show all of his sides to (the reporters) but he's been just great, not just today but in the clubhouse, as a player, as a teammate, whatever.''
Before Rodriguez led off the seventh with an infield single, the Yankees had just one hit off Bronson Arroyo -- Rodriguez's third homer and first at Yankee Stadium for New York.
``Each day is getting more comfortable,'' said Rodriguez, who is 9-for-20 since his 1-for-17 performance in Boston last weekend.
The Yankees came in hitting .228, next to last in the American League, and looked every bit as bad. They went 4-for-36, and except for three singles in the seventh never really looked comfortable at the plate.
Derek Jeter went 0-for-5 and doesn't have a hit in 21 at-bats, the longest hitless streak of his career. Bernie Williams, dropped to eighth in the order, also went hitless in five at-bats and is in a 1-for-31 slide.
``When you're not swinging well, everybody has something to say,'' Jeter said. ``You just have to work and hope you get a hit some day.''
Boston went up 2-0 when they loaded the bases in the second when Brown committed two errors and hit a batter before Pokey Reese flied out to center.
Brown then settled down and held the Red Sox for seven innings. He gave up just four hits and two runs -- one earned -- but walked four.
Arroyo finished up allowing two runs and four hits in six-plus innings, hissecond solid start against Brown and the Yankees a week.
Notes
Reese went 1-for-2 against Brown and is 3-for-18 against him, with all his
hits coming this season. ... The Yankees' first three strikeouts werelooking.
... Bill Mueller got his 200th career double in the fifth.