Detached
Game 103: July 30, 2005
Twins (54-49), 2
Red Sox (58-45), 6
L: Kyle Lohse (7-10)
W: David Wells (9-5)
Manny Ramirez was removed from lineup minutes before the game. Speculation swirled throughout the frames. Was there a deal pending with the Mets, Devil Rays, some other team? Who was or wasn’t starting for the other teams? I couldn’t enjoy this game at all because I kept on picturing was the team as I had come to know it being radically altered in less than 24 hours. Then I saw Ramirez on the field in uniform congratulating his teammates on the win, and felt an unnerving mix of relief, confusion, and anger. Relieved that it seemed that Manny would not be traded, confusion because I didn’t see the logic of having him ride pine tonight, and angry because I had no idea what was going on and I had spent nearly the entire day on tenterhooks, ill with a cold to boot. Terry Francona seemingly answered some of these questions in his press conference following the game, saying he sat Ramirez to “clear his head.” Regarding the Manny situation, Jason Varitek in his postgame interview said, “We handle that kind of thing in-house.”
Distracted as I was during the game, I barely enjoyed Wells’s 7 inning effort, with 7 hits, 2 earned runs, no walks, 3 strikeouts, and no home runs. The lefty starter gets the most run support per 9 innings with 8.48. Wells was entirely candid in his appearance on the postgame show, calling Ramirez out for not playing this past Wednesday. He also said that Boston “is not Beantown, it’s Cameratown.”
While I was madly refreshing the trade threads on various Red Sox message boards, John Olerud in his clean-up role drove in 3 RBIs, 1 in the 1st inning and the other 2 in the 6th. Edgar Renteria, Bill Mueller, and Varitek each had 1 RBI each, Mueller’s happening in the the 2nd inning with his third triple of the season.
Wells gave up 2 runs to start the 8th inning. The Red Sox bullpen’s mirror sidearm pitchers, Chad Bradford and Mike Myers combined to baffle the Twins 8th and 9th inning, holding them to no runs.
In summary, Manny remains (so far) and the good guys won. To keep arms length from the insanity, I’ll be going to Portland tomorrow to take in a game at Hadlock Field. The last time I was there, a replica of Cesar Crespo’s jersey was on display as a Sea Dog who had made the majors. I’ll see if there are any other amusing artifacts and this time I will get a picture with Slugger.
