Ramírez leaves a welcome-back present

No better announcement than that, right?

With one out, and the Red Sox trailing by two runs to the Orioles in the sixth inning, Manny Ramírez took one of those Manny swings, sending a ball from the hand of Orioles pitcher Adam Loewen long and far and out of Fenway Park.

Ramírez stopped after the swing to admire work that Sox fans haven't seen much of lately, work that hadn't gone that long and that far since the five-game, season-finishing series against the Yankees five weeks ago.

So he stopped, took a few measured steps out of the batter's box to watch the soaring drive clear the last row of Monster seats, and lifted both hands in a modified ``V" as the crowd exploded. Or, as David Ortiz marveled later, ``He crushed that [pitch]."

``I actually thought maybe we won the World Series," manager Terry Francona said in a deadpan. ``I think maybe he was just kind of happy to be back in there and do something. I didn't ask him. I checked the scoreboard to make sure I had the right score."

Manny was back. The question is, for how long?

With the potential for Ramírez to be traded in the offseason -- with his agent, Greg Genske, having made another trade request in recent days -- fans and teammates might be enjoying the last hurrah for Ramírez as a member of the Red Sox.

Of course, as has been the case in recent years, they also might not.

In either case, Ramírez returned to the lineup for the first time since Sept. 9, batting for the first time since pinch hitting Sept. 23 in Toronto. His home run last night helped, but it wasn't enough to carry the Red Sox, as they fell, 5-4, to the Orioles, dropping one game back of Toronto for second place in the American League East.

Though he was greeted by a smattering of cheers (mixed with a few boos), the reception got warmer as the game progressed for the player who has spent much of the last five weeks in the dugout complaining of patellar tendinitis. With his team losing games and losing steam, Ramírez had played sparingly, though the last MRI performed by the team came back clean.

But Francona had maintained that Ramírez was working out hard in recent days, arriving at the ballpark at 10:30 a.m., so he decided that Ramírez could be inserted into the lineup, even though winning or losing last night's game mattered little. ``He can hit," Francona said before acknowledging that Ramírez would not be in the lineup today, with Ortiz back in his customary designated hitter spot.

Ramírez's home run started a rally that put the Red Sox in front, 4-3, and allowed Tim Wakefield to leave the game with a lead for the first time in four starts. Except Ramírez couldn't help Mike Timlin, who was charged with his eighth blown save of the season.

Timlin, bidding for his ninth save, was smacked around in the ninth inning. After Miguel Tejada reached on a single, Fernando Tatis singled to right, and Ramon Hernandez reached on a fielder's choice at second base. Kevin Millar roped a single -- which would have been a double, had Millar not slipped between first and second and been tagged out -- off the Wall that brought home Corey Patterson (running for Tejada) and Brandon Fahey (running for Hernandez).

Pinch hitter Ortiz tried to tie the game with a fly to the triangle, but it was easily caught by Patterson.

So there were no heroics, at least not at the end, when Ramírez was left in the on-deck circle with Boston down by a run.

Hey, at least he was playing.

Jonathan Papelbon wasn't exactly jumping up and down on the mound yesterday. Still, David Murphy could tell he was excited.

With just this one final hurdle to get over before entering the offseason, Papelbon threw 20-25 pitches to three batters -- Dustin Pedroia, Ken Huckaby, and Murphy -- for the first time since the ``transient subluxation" that took him out of a game Sept. 1 and shut down his season.

``Everything felt good," Papelbon said. ``I got a little rotational. My body wasn't as in synch as I'd like it to be. For the most part, I was really on my pitches pretty good. It's huge, man. Now I can mentally shut it down and know that going into this offseason whenever I've got to get it going back again, it's going to be no holds barred."

Throwing all his pitches -- fastballs, sliders, splitters -- Papelbon gained a clear path to the strength training that will mark much of his early offseason workouts. The pitcher and the team have determined that strengthening the shoulder joint, so he does not experience any more of the slippage that ended his season, is paramount.

``The biggest thing we wanted him to do was exit the season feeling really good about himself," said Francona. ``At least we accomplished that."

Wakefield, whose contract contains a $4 million club option for 2007 (and beyond), didn't exactly have the kind of season he was anticipating, with a fractured rib and a longer-than-anticipated stay on the disabled list. But that doesn't mean he won't be back in Fenway. ``I am confident that I will be back next year," Wakefield said after throwing six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks last night. ``Just hasn't been finalized yet." . . . Alex Gonzalez, who went home to Miami Tuesday for a family medical issue, reappeared in the Red Sox clubhouse before the game.