(AP Photo)
Whenever Manny Ramirez is slightly struggling in the beginning of the year you begin to hear the whispers of some asking "What's wrong with Manny?". Shoot, the other night when Rick Sutcliffe was committing every reporting error you could possibly dream of he was slamming Manny often while questioning his abilities. What's the moral of this story? We don't seem to learn from the past as well as we'd like to think. Manny often starts off slow, but Manny always end well. For a guy who's a career .313 hitter with a career .596 slugging percentage he should get a mulligan when it comes to slow starts.
Cliche's are a part of baseball talk for sure, but Manny hitting 100 RBI and near .300 isn't a cliche, it's a fact and something that will happen again this year, much like it has for the past six seasons in Boston. That being said what a game for number 24 last night. Manny was just a home run away from hitting for the cycle, and he helped lead the Red Sox past the Texas Rangers 7-4.
Tim Wakefield wasn't the sharpest for the Sawx but he did pitch seven innings for us and, along with an impressive inning by Brendan Donnelly, helped preserve the acquired Red Sox lead. Things are looking good for Boston as the summer heat picks up we'll see how our offense can do with a free swinging Manny on board. Sox go for the sweep today at 3:05pm, Beckett's making his start on Tuesday, and Matsuzaka is recovered from his stomach bug. Like many of the days thus far in the 2007 campaign, it's feeling pretty good to be a Red Sox fan now.
SawxBlog Player of the Game
Manny Ramirez - LF
4/4, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 BB
It ain't over until the fat lady sings... Have a nice weekend...
Posted by: Ben | May 27, 2007 at 04:54 PM
You may have gotten your wish granted to you Rocky that hit by Drew on Sunday was clutch baby! I hope he's back not only for the Sox but also for my fantasy baseball team :-) I refuse to bench him out of hope that he'll turn it around, well, that, and he IS a Red Sox!
Posted by: Derek Hixon | May 28, 2007 at 09:46 AM
You too Ben, what a game yesterday.
Posted by: Derek Hixon | May 28, 2007 at 10:17 AM