Wells comes out firing

If any teammate of Manny Ramirez's was going to speak out, it wasn't hard to guess who it would be. David Wells, bombastic as usual, took to the New England Sports Network set postgame and, well, let his teammate have it.

Ramirez hadn't been in the lineup. And Wells, of course, had an opinion.

''I didn't know until we hit in the bottom of the inning and there's no Manny," Wells said. ''The guy's messing with my cake. I want to try to get a ring, man. If he's not out there, that creates a problem. And I don't know the situation. Whatever it is, he better have a great excuse because we need Manny Ramirez in the lineup. I don't care what's going on. This team needs him.

''If he's going to come out and say he needs another day off, that's not going to sit well with a lot of guys. There's no question. . . . It's selfish for him not to step up. Listen, we've got a couple guys hurt. We need you in there. His impact in that is tremendous. The [opposing] pitchers are going, 'Oh boy. What do we throw this guy?' He's hitting everything. For Manny not to step up, I think that was selfish on his part."

It was the second time in the last three games Ramirez did not take the field. In the final game of the series against Tampa Bay Wednesday, Ramirez refused manager Terry Francona's request that he play after an injury to Trot Nixon the night before left the team shorthanded in the outfield. He had been promised a day off. And he took it. Ramirez was, however, back in the lineup Friday, going 0 for 3.

Then last night he was a last-minute scratch. After the game Francona said his slugger would sit out the series finale this afternoon as well so he could ''clear his head."

Wells stood alone in his criticism of Ramirez. Most of his teammates stood quiet in the clubhouse, subdued. David Ortiz slipped out before he could answer questions. The rest deflected questions.

''We still know what the job at hand is, which is to win a ballgame, which we did," Johnny Damon said. ''[Francona] knows what he's doing. Tito wants Manny to get his mind right. If his mind's not right, it's going to be tough for him to help our team."

Damon's comment was representative. It was as if all the players -- those who appeared in the clubhouse after the game -- read from the same script. Wells eschewed the party line. He dug deeper, twisted harder into a teammate protected in the clubhouse. He acknowledged a lack of privacy in Boston, concurring with one of Ramirez's reported complaints. That, however, was where the agreement ended.

He wasn't, to put it nicely, pleased with his teammate.

That would be a teammate whose silver Mercedes had stood nose out in the players' lot from the sixth inning on. The Manny watch was on. The star? Nowhere in sight. Ramirez only took the field after the final out, shaking hands with teammates and prompting an impassioned chant from supportive fans.

It was far from the mix of cheers and boos he received Friday night.

Those in the park may have left with the ''Manny" chants running through their heads. Those listening to last night's starting pitcher left with a far different thought.

''He's a great guy," Wells said. ''I mean the guys like him, very fun in the clubhouse. I think the world of him. But what he's doing is starting to reflect on these guys and he's going to get a lot of negative feedback if he continues to do what he's doing."