Ramirez slow out of the box

ARLINGTON, Texas -- David Ortiz, as he's inclined to do, ducked into Terry Francona's office yesterday afternoon to make his manager laugh, this time with a pink patch over one eye.

''Manny wore this to the park today," Ortiz said. ''He said, 'It makes my eyes stronger.' I said, 'It looked like you were wearing that at the plate last night.' "

''Does it help?" Francona asked.

''It doesn't seem like it," Ortiz said, by this time having exited into the hallway. ''I almost bumped into this wall here."

Indeed, a night earlier, Manny Ramírez looked lost at the plate, a rare occurrence. He fanned three times, twice against starter Vicente Padilla, once against reliever Akinori Otsuka, all on letter-high fastballs. Last season, he struck out three times in one game only three times. That lowered him to 1 for 8 on the season, with four K's and a walk, and last night he went 0 for 2 with two walks and a strikeout. He accounted for Texas starter Kameron Loe's only strikeout.

''He might be doing something at the plate," Ortiz explained. ''He's the kind of hitter, sometimes he's looking for pitches. Manny's a great breaking-ball hitter. Sometimes he gets caught in between. That happens."

This might simply be a three-day aberration. Or, it might be the beginning of a slow start, which Ramírez suffered through last season. In 2005, he hit just .224 through 46 games, then turned it on, batting .321 with 34 home runs and 106 RBIs the rest of the way. In fact, he could have begun the season May 28 last year and still tied for eighth in the American League in homers and ranked 11th in RBIs.

''I have so much confidence in his ability to come right back," Francona said. ''He figures it out about as good as anybody in baseball."

Ramírez's next home run will be his 200th in a Red Sox uniform. He sits in ninth place on the club's all-time list and should surpass Mo Vaughn (230) for fifth by season's end. The gradient of the climb then becomes rather substantial: Dwight Evans is fourth (379), behind Jim Rice (382), Carl Yastrzemski (452), and Ted Williams (521).

Josh Beckett, last night's starter, is one of three former World Series MVPs on the 2005 club, joining Ramírez (2004) and Curt Schilling (2001 co-MVP with Randy Johnson). The Yankees, too, have three: Johnson, Derek Jeter (2001), and Mariano Rivera (1999). The other 28 teams, according to Sox research maven Peter Chase, count only four: Jermaine Dye (2005, Chicago), Troy Glaus (2002, Anaheim), Livan Hernandez (1997, Florida), and Tom Glavine (1995, Atlanta) . . . The 25-year-old Beckett, Chase noted, is the youngest pitcher to begin a season in the Sox' rotation since Casey Fossum in 2003. Since 2000, the only other 25-or-younger starters to begin a year in the rotation were 23-year-old Paxton Crawford in 2001 and 24-year-old Brian Rose in 2000 . . . Josh Bard, after watching the tape of Tuesday's game in which he allowed three passed balls: ''I was getting up on my haunches a little more because I was in a defensive posture. The thing Dougie [Mirabelli] did so well is to sit down and let the ball come to him." Two of the catchable balls that went for passed balls were thrown right at Bard's facemask. Those, he said, are ''the toughest ones. It almost looks like it [rises]." . . . Abe Alvarez, who at 23 still has the makings of a good finesse lefthander who can help the big club down the road, is scheduled to pitch Pawtucket's Triple A opener tonight at 7:05 in McCoy Stadium. Jon Lester, the lefthander considered by many the team's top prospect, is scheduled to make his Triple A debut Monday night against Rochester. There are tickets available for the entire homestand, including David Wells's scheduled start tomorrow . . . Dustin Pedroia, the top positional prospect expected to split his time between second base and shortstop in Pawtucket, stayed back in Florida to continue rehabbing his left shoulder (subluxation). Pedroia is expected back in mid-April . . . Two possible targets for the Sox, who could use catching depth at Triple A: Arizona's Koyie Hill (who was designated for assignment) and Dane Sardinha (outrighted by Cincinnati) . . . The Sox started the season with three errorless games for the first time since 1993 (they made an error in their fourth game) . . . The Sox have won 10 of their last 13 against Texas . . . Ortiz grounded into two double plays in a game for just the fourth time in his career.

Gordon Edes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.