Red Sox lacking punch

Remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which delayed the start of yesterday's game by 68 minutes, packed a bigger wallop than the Red Sox lineup in their 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Even with the return of Alex Gonzalez and Wily Mo Peña to the lineup the Red Sox were stuffed by lefty Gustavo Chacin and two relievers on a rainy day before the most empty seats seen at Fenway in some time (even though all the tickets were sold). But there was some optimism in the clubhouse after the game, especially from tonight's starter, Julian Tavarez, who believes Manny Ramírez will rejoin the lineup tonight and play left field.

Tavarez's comments were somewhat surprising, as Ramírez has missed nine of the last 10 games with patellar tendinitis in his right knee. After the game, manager Terry Francona announced that Jason Varitek will catch and Trot Nixon will play right field tonight against the White Sox, but he made no mention of Ramírez.

The Sox also expect David Ortiz to possibly return by tomorrow, since he has had no further episodes of heart palpitations.

``I saw [Ramírez] do some running today and I asked him, `Are you going to play tomorrow night?' " said Tavarez, one of Ramírez's closest friends on the team. ``He said he wanted to play [yesterday] but that they wanted to make sure he was 100 percent. He wants to play. He will. I guarantee it."

Tavarez said he believes tonight's game could be ``the start of something exciting here. We're getting our guys back. We're 6 1/2 games out [7 in the loss column] of the wild card and I've seen teams over the years get hot in September and make the playoffs. We can make it happen if we have our guys back."

The Sox did miss a golden opportunity to pick up ground in the wild-card race, with Chicago and Minnesota losing.

The Red Sox, who have been pretty pathetic offensively since the beginning of August (they hit .234 with runners in scoring position in the month and have started September 1 for 12) managed barely a pulse against Chacin, who held the Sox in check for six innings.

A pair of ninth-inning doubles by Mike Lowell (who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple) and Peña marked the first two times the Sox reached second base. Only Doug Mirabelli's infield single in the inning produced a run, and the Sox' first hit with runners in scoring position in September.

The Sox have scored two or fewer runs six times in the last seven games. In the last 14 games they're hitting .197.

Boston starter Josh Beckett went five innings and allowed five hits and three earned runs, but was taken out after 77 pitches because he had warmed up twice because of the rain delay and Francona didn't want to risk getting Beckett hurt.

Francona said Beckett wanted to stay in the game. Beckett said, ``He didn't let me lobby. He called me down in the dugout and asked me how I felt, and I said fine. And he said, `I don't feel comfortable letting you back out there.' He really didn't let me say one way or the other.

``Basically I went through my whole warmup [32 pitches] and then they told me the game was delayed and then I came back in and got re-loose and then went back and re-did it [42 pitches].

``That's his call. That's his decision that he gets paid for."

Beckett, who surrendered runs in the second, third, and fourth, didn't have the benefit of Nixon, Varitek, and possibly Ramírez, but the 26-year-old can see better days ahead.

``Well, anytime you can get caliber players like that back it's a big deal," said Beckett. ``It would have been nice [in] some of these closer games that we have had here recently but we are getting our stars back."

In reality the Sox are in garbage time, but just in case Minnesota and Chicago start to slip, Francona wants to make sure the Sox are playing the game the way it should be played.

``The one thing I really care about -- there are a lot of things -- but just play the game correctly as much as we can," he said. ``There's a natural feeling that you are getting into September, we are beat up, we're losing ground. But I am confident that we will play the game right. That's huge for me."

Lowell, who tried to make a hustle play by stretching his double in the ninth, agrees the more players who come back, the closer to normal the Sox will be for the final 25 games.

``We welcome them all back," said Lowell. ``We need them. I don't think there's anything enjoyable about the way things are going right now. We're struggling. Maybe we can give our consistency a boost with our guys back. I hope so."

Gonzalez went 0 for 3 in his return to the lineup since going on the disabled list with a right oblique strain retroactive to Aug. 19. The shortstop didn't seem to suffer any ill effects, though he was iced to the brim after the game. Peña, too, seemed to show no ill effects from his sore left wrist, which had caused him to miss eight games before he was the DH yesterday. Pena went 1 for 4 with that double in the ninth, hitting the ball with authority.

With a fuller lineup ahead, do the Sox have one more run in them?

``These are very good players we have here," said Tavarez.

``We have a lot of pride in what we do. I think the guys are going to want to go out and show everybody what they can do.

``We don't have to believe this is over."