Home team catches a break with this grab

Jeff Mathis (left) was beaten to a foul ball by Sox fan Danny Vinik (right), who plucked the ball before it hit the catcher's mitt. (BILL GREENE/GLOBE STAFF)

As he stood by the entrance to the Red Sox clubhouse last night, surrounded by reporters, Danny Vinik couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened.

His outstretched hand landed the prize of the evening, a foul ball off the bat of Manny Ramírez that Vinik took away from the outstretched glove of Angels catcher Jeff Mathis.

Danny, the 17-year-old son of Jeff Vinik, a limited partner of the Red Sox, got his moment courtesy of a fifth-inning takeaway that gave Ramírez new life in his at-bat. Ramírez walked to load the bases, then Mike Lowell hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 3-3. Ramírez's three-run homer in the ninth won it, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL Division Series.

"I still can't believe it," the young Vinik said before assuring a reporter it was the best catch of his career. "It was unbelievable. Just seeing it up there, sticking my hand out there, and it just landed in my hand. I don't remember really what happened. Just unbelievable, amazing."

Getting in swing

With his younger brother, Stephen, grabbing the headlines with a home run and triple for the Arizona Diamondbacks, J.D. Drew was falling behind fast in the sibling rivalry in October. But big brother came up with a big hit of his own last night, providing a two-run single in the first inning.

Last night was J.D. Drew's 29th postseason game. After his 1-for-4 outing, he's batting .237 (22 for 93) with three home runs and eight RBIs, including previous action with the Cardinals, Braves, and Dodgers.

Drew was still chuckling this week about missing the AL East-clinching celebration last Friday night, watching it on television instead with his wife, Sheigh, who is eight months pregnant.

"It struck me funny, the whole celebration," Drew said. "I had no [inkling] whatsoever the Yankees were going to lose. When I walked out, it was 9-6. A lot of guys left. I sat here as long as I felt possible. I knew [his son] Jack was driving my wife crazy. I walked in, and I thought, 'There's no way I can walk away now.' I laughed so hard. It was kind of fun in one sense: I got to celebrate with her."

Jack, a toddler who is still in a body cast after hip displacement surgery, occupies much of the couple's energy, as the circles under Drew's eyes attest.

"I was up about five times [the other] night," Drew said. "Jack's in the brace and still real uncomfortable. It's one of those things where he can't flip over. Me, I'm flipping around all night. So I spend a lot of time up and down [attending to his son]. I can't expect my wife to do more than she's done. She's got him all day, so I try to bounce out of bed. Sometimes he does great and sleeps through the night. Other nights? My God."

The couple is expecting a girl, "unless we get a real surprise a month from now," said Drew.

Drew, who struggled through a trying season, with just 11 home runs, 64 RBIs, and a subpar .270 average, finished on the upswing, batting .393 with four homers and 15 RBIs in his last 18 games of the regular season.

"It's just easier to play when you get a rhythm going," he said.

Head start

Game 3 starter Curt Schilling and Game 1 winner Josh Beckett, who will start if a Game 4 is necessary, flew to Anaheim, Calif., late yesterday afternoon. Manager Terry Francona figured the rest of the Red Sox probably won't get to their hotel until around 7 a.m. today, Pacific time. The club is scheduled to have an optional workout in midafternoon, with Schilling and Francona due to appear at a press conference. Game 3 is scheduled for a 12:07 p.m. Pacific start tomorrow (3:07 EDT).

"There may be some pitchers that need to throw, but other than that, it's as optional as you get," Francona said. "It's just probably not in our best interests to [work out]. Crazy travel. That's the way it is."

Catch as catch can

Tim Wakefield played catch from about 90 feet Thursday, Francona said, and will continue to play catch until the team's medical staff deems him ready to progress to a bullpen session. With Wakefield not needed to start until a prospective Game 4 of the AL Championship Series, the Sox have the luxury of time. But Francona is offering no guarantees that the 41-year-old knuckleballer, who has inflammation in the back of his shoulder, will be ready.

"There was a lot of improvement," Francona said. "I think you could even kind of see it in his face, where I think he was kind of feeling it a little bit. I know he's sore. I guess I'm hoping he's well because of who he is, but I don't know that anything's a lock."

He's come a long way

Back in May, Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen combined to blow an eight-run, ninth-inning lead for Triple A Pawtucket in Buffalo. Hansen faced seven batters; all seven scored. Delcarmen entered and walked in the winning run.

"I'm so beyond that now, so past that," said Delcarmen, who contributed 1 1/3 innings to the bullpen's 4 1/3-inning hitless performance in last night's win. "[Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson] told us, 'You guys aren't ready for the big leagues.' I decided I had to get out of there. I knew I had to get after it. Everything worked out well."

Not so well for Hansen. While Delcarmen has blossomed into a valuable member of the Sox' bullpen, Hansen is in Arizona, preparing to pitch in the Fall League. That's quite a step back for a player drafted in the first round in 2005 and was in the big leagues three months later.

Hansen had a 6.00 ERA in four appearances for the Sox that season and was not placed on the postseason roster, then struggled mightily in 2006, when he had a 6.63 ERA in 38 appearances for the Sox, spread over three stints.

Hansen spent all of 2007 with Pawtucket, where he had a 3-1 record and 3.86 ERA, striking out 48 in 51 1/3 innings. But he struggled with control, walking 32, and was shut down with forearm tenderness, one reason the Sox cited for sending him to Arizona.

"I've called him a couple of times," Delcarmen said earlier in the week, "but I haven't heard back from him."

Sweet nothings

Jeff Yamaguchi, who serves as Hideki Okajima's translator, was interpreting for the reliever last weekend and said Okajima had thrown a "cookie," a common expression used by English-speaking pitchers to describe a fat pitch. Yamaguchi insisted that Okajima had employed the Japanese equivalent for cookie. "Amai [pronounced ah-MY] means sweet," Yamaguchi said. "Tama is ball. So when you say 'amai tama,' you're saying 'sweet ball.' " In other words, a cookie . . . Bench coach Brad Mills worked at one time or another for three of the four teams in the National League playoffs. Mills was Francona's first base coach with the Phillies. He was an advance scout and minor league manager for the Cubs. He managed the Rockies' Colorado Springs team to the Pacific Coast League championship in 1995. Mills missed the Diamondbacks, though he has a strong Arizona connection: He starred with Francona for the University of Arizona . . . Dana Levangie, who served as one of the Sox' advance scouts this season, and Dave Howard did most of the work on the scouting reports of the Angels. Todd Claus, the other principal advance scout, is following the Indians.