Ramírez could be done for the season

BALTIMORE -- Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after a closed-door meeting with Manny Ramírez yesterday that ``there's a chance" Ramírez, who has been diagnosed with patellar tendinitis in his right knee, will not play the rest of the season.

``He wants to play," Francona said before the Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-5, last night, ``but he can't."

Francona said he had spoken with Thomas Gill, the team's medical director, before determining that Ramírez would be unavailable to play this weekend against the Yankees, who took control of the American League East race when they swept five games from the Sox in Fenway Park last month, and can clinch their ninth straight division title during a four-game series that opens tonight in Yankee Stadium.

``As much as we don't want to hear it, rest is probably what he needs," Francona said.

The Yankees reduced their magic number to clinch to six by beating the Devil Rays, 7-4, last night, and Sox second baseman Mark Loretta kept it from shrinking further by singling home the tying run in the eighth and the winning run in the ninth, with Mike Timlin inducing Ramon Hernandez to roll into a game-ending double play with the tying run at third for the save.

``You can't run from guys, nor will we -- if we're going to win games, we need him, whether it's the seventh, eighth, or ninth," Francona said of turning to Timlin.

In the ninth, Timlin gave up a leadoff double to Melvin Mora, leading Francona to gamble on an intentional walk to Miguel Tejada with one out , before Timlin got Hernandez to hit a ground ball to shortstop Alex Cora.

``It's not fun," Francona said of putting the potential winning run on base. ``The percentages are not in your favor."

The odds of seeing Ramírez also seem greatly reduced after his meeting with Francona, which came at the manager's request. Since taking himself out of the last game of the Yankee series Aug. 21 with a sore hamstring, Ramírez has appeared in eight games, batting .091 (2 for 22). In the first four games of the Yankee series, he went 8 for 11 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and 7 RBIs while walking seven times.

Last night was the 14th game he has missed since then.

``I don't know that that's going to happen," Francona said of shutting down Ramírez the rest of the way. ``I do think it's a possibility. If he sits another week, we try to balance winning every game you can and using common sense. We just talked about it a little bit.

``He said not only when he runs, but when he tries to get into his balance point hitting, it's when it's kind of, I shouldn't say it's grinding, but it's not feeling a lot better yet. In talking to Dr. Gill, the one thing he needs is rest, and if he plays, that's not rest. [Ramírez] was very open, and I was appreciative. He's been like that all year. We'll do the best we can, like we do with everybody."

Because it is Ramírez, who has a history of citing hamstring injuries under dubious circumstances, questions have been raised about this latest injury, especially after a report in the Providence Journal during the Yankee series that Ramírez had to be talked into playing one game because he was miffed about a scorer's ruling. Ramírez, who does not speak with the Boston print media, has never responded to that allegation, but while on the West Coast last month, general manager Theo Epstein alluded to Ramírez's problem as a ``legitimate injury."

David Ortiz has defended Ramírez, saying his knee has been bothering him for some time, and on Wednesday night, another Sox veteran said he was convinced Ramírez was injured, that Ramírez had expressed frustration to him about his inability to play on the West Coast swing and his awareness of how much the team needed him.

Third baseman Mike Lowell also had addressed the subject of Ramírez's health when he first went down with the injury .

``Since this is my first year of playing with Manny, I don't know how things were dealt with," Lowell said at the time. ``He's obviously a different personality and I have to give him the benefit of the doubt because we ran him out there every day, he played every day. So if he says he can't play, I've got to believe he can't play."

Ramírez is batting .318 with 34 home runs and 101 RBIs. He is second in the AL in on-base percentage at .436 and fourth in slugging percentage at .612. Earlier this season, he had a career-best 27-game hitting streak.

Without Ramírez in the lineup last night , Ortiz walked four times, including once to load the bases in the eighth, when the Sox rallied to tie the score on three singles. Ortiz fouled out to third with the bases loaded in the ninth, ending the series 0 for 10 with five walks. He is hitting just .167 (9 for 54) against the Orioles, his worst average against any team this season.

Ortiz is likely to catch some flak in New York after he was portrayed as denigrating Yankee icon Derek Jeter in the MVP race in comments in which he said run-producing sluggers such as Jermaine Dye and Justin Morneau are more worthy of consideration than the New York shortstop. Ortiz, asked about what kind of reception he anticipated, laughed and said, ``Booooo."

Francona said he expects to field questions on the topic.

``It's kind of my responsibility of maybe cleaning it up a little bit," he said. ``It probably didn't turn out like David thought it would. I don't think it came out the way it was intended."

The Orioles scored five runs on six hits in the fourth inning last night off lefthander Lenny DiNardo, making his first start since May 21 after being sidelined for much of the summer with a strained neck.