Ramírez gets weekend pass
BALTIMORE - Terry Francona didn't need to say anything, since Manny Ramírez wasn't here to begin with and no one would have been the wiser, but the Red Sox manager said yesterday Ramírez had been granted permission to spend the weekend at his South Florida home.
"He had a personal thing," said Francona. "He's going to run home, come back Sunday morning. It has been OK'd by the organization. He's got a place to work out there. Other than that, he's doing OK. He's getting close to resuming baseball activities, which is good. Maybe Sunday, we'll see. I can try to help with timetables, [but] there really isn't one. It's kind of how people feel."
Ramírez has not played since leaving an Aug. 28 game against the Yankees in New York with a strained left oblique muscle. By the time the Sox wrap up their series here against the Orioles, he will have missed a dozen games. The Sox lost their first three games without Ramírez, two to the Yankees, but have won six of the last seven. They've scored 57 runs in the 10 games he missed, an average of 5.7 a game, which is higher than their season average (5.3).
Mike Lowell has batted cleanup in nine of the 10 games and is hitting .351 (13 for 37) with a home run and eight RBIs. Kevin Youkilis batted cleanup in the other game, Aug. 30 against the Yankees, and went 0 for 1 with three walks.
Bat man?
There was more ill temper in the ninth inning of last night's win, when plate umpire Mike DiMuro confronted Sox third baseman Mike Lowell after he was called out on strikes and flipped his bat backward. Asked if he was fined, Lowell said: "I don't think so, I didn't do anything. He told me I was throwing the bat at him. I said, 'Third out of the inning, if I think strike three is not strike three, I'm going to tell you, like the at-bat before. Third out, I'm walking away, what did I do, I've done that plenty of times.' He told me, 'Don't throw the bat at me.' I said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Don't throw the bat at me.' I didn't say a word. I acknowledged it was strike three. I go, I can't be upset when the guy paints a backdoor curveball after I fouled off five pitches. I thought it was ridiculous." . . . There have been some rough patches, but Jon Lester is now unbeaten in his last 11 starts dating to last season, going 6-0 with a 5.55 ERA in that stretch. He has allowed two or fewer runs in three of his last four starts, going 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA in that span. The shutout was the 13th by the Sox staff and eighth on the road, most in the majors. "He threw well, real well," Lowell said. "Fastball kind of jumps on guys, he mixed in a cutter, it looked like he was jamming a lot of guys. It was a close game but it seemed like we were cruising, and that's a good feeling. He did a good job." . . . J.D. Drew had one of his better nights in a while, hitting a ground-rule double, walking twice, and making a terrific catch in the right-field corner in the ninth. "Great catch," Francona said. "Sometimes you need a good swing, and you need to get rewarded. I'm sure he felt a lot looser after that. Again, we've talked about it a ton. We need him to be a big part of our offense. We don't need to run away from him."
No hitters
Jonathan Papelbon, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth Thursday for his 34th save, has retired the last 16 batters he has faced since walking the Orioles' Brian Roberts Aug. 31. The last batter to get a hit off Papelbon was Orlando Cabrera of the Angels Aug. 17. Opposing batters are 0 for 25 since . . . Doug Mirabelli is day to day after straining his left hamstring running out a hit Thursday. Francona said the team should know more in another day how long Mirabelli might be out, but said there are no plans to add another catcher . . . Rookie Brandon Moss got a primer in playing first base from Francona early yesterday afternoon. Moss, who played primarily outfield at Triple A Pawtucket, will play first in the Dominican winter league, Francona said. Moss is scheduled to play for Aguilas, which is based in Santiago . . . The Orioles' Kevin Millar guaranteed his 2008 contract by reaching 475 plate appearances . . . A couple of numbers, courtesy of baseball-reference.com: Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has 49 home runs, hit off 46 different pitchers. Rodriguez has two each off Curt Schilling, Angels reliever Chris Bootcheck, and hit his second off Kansas City's Gil Meche last night. Five of A-Rod's home runs have come off Sox pitchers: two off Schilling, one apiece off Josh Beckett, Papelbon, and Tim Wakefield. By comparison, David Ortiz has two home runs off one pitcher this season, Vicente Padilla of the Rangers. In 2006, Ortiz hit two home runs off five pitchers: Gustavo Chacin, Meche, Anibal Sanchez, Scott Sauerbeck, and James Shields. Also from baseball-reference.com, the Sox and San Diego Padres have used the fewest pitchers age 24 or under (as of June 30), two apiece. Buchholz and Jon Lester are the Sox pitchers. The Florida Marlins, by contrast, have used 13.
Nick Cafardo of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
