How to explain this?

Ramírez not quite sure on HR details

CLEVELAND - The playful face and sometimes quizzical comments are back. The old Manny Ramírez, the one who talked and smiled and hit home runs at a prodigious pace, is back. Though he managed to insert one off-year into a career bound for the Hall of Fame, Ramírez seems to have recaptured it, along with the persona that he used to show outwardly but got more and more hidden over the past few years.

Last night was no exception. Standing in the clubhouse at Progressive Field, Ramírez gave reporters short quips before heading out into the freezing Cleveland night. They were beams into his incredible hitting mind. But not too much. Never too much.

He had just hit a home run. Not just any home run, but a two-run shot that scored the pinch running Jacoby Ellsbury, who came in for David Ortiz after Ramírez's partner in crime had blooped a single into left field. It was Ramírez's second career homer off Joe Borowski, in just three at-bats against the Cleveland closer, and it pushed the Red Sox to a 6-4 win.

"We never give up, man," Ramírez said. "We just play hard all the way."

Not that Ramírez knew, exactly, what he hit out of the park.

"Like a fastball," he explained. "It was something like 80. Or a change. It was right there."

And then it was gone. The ball traveled 417 feet before it settled into the left-field stands. It put the Red Sox up by that 6-4 score, and it simply added to Ramírez's legacy at the former Jacobs Field. It was his 132d homer in his former home park, his 16th against the Indians. Not to mention that it tied him for 24th all-time with 493 home runs, placing his name next to those of Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff.

Though Ramírez couldn't quite identify the pitch from Borowski, whose velocity has been down this season as he has struggled (18.00 ERA in five games), it hardly mattered. Ramírez was looking for something he liked. He could hit the pitch that Borowski offered, no matter whether it was a fastball or a change.

"It really doesn't matter with the garbage I was throwing out there," Borowski said. "Especially against him."

For those not fully convinced of Ramírez's offseason commitment to working out in Arizona, here are the facts: In his first 14 games of 2007, Ramirez, who has not hit more than .300 in March and April since 2004, was hitting .200. He had eight RBIs. Through his first 14 games of 2008, Ramirez is hitting .309 with 14 RBIs.

And he authored the Red Sox' first come-from-behind win since Brandon Moss was a member of the team (Game 1, Tokyo), though he wasn't putting too much stock in the ninth-inning rally. To him, it was another win.

"It's fun every day," Ramírez said. "Even when you don't come back. We love this job, we love to compete. That's why you play the game."

With Ortiz (2 for 5) perhaps starting to pick up his game, the pair could be back in business. Back in a position where no reliever wants to face either of them, when the choice is bad and worse.

"You always have a feeling with him," said Dustin Pedroia, whose sacrifice fly tied the score in the ninth. "He's always got that personality of just 'give me one more chance and I'll get 'em.'

"Obviously when he's up there, you feel like something great's going to happen."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com