Ramirez is sidelined with a sore right knee

Sore Man-knee David Ortiz is on his way back while Manny is out of the lineup with a sore knee.

SEATTLE - And on the last day of the West Coast swing, Manny rested.

Terry Francona said Manny Ramírez showed up yesterday morning and reported his right knee was sore, an overnight development the Red Sox manager said caught him by surprise. The trainers had not communicated any issue to Francona, he said, after Tuesday night's game.

"He showed up this morning; I wasn't ready for that," Francona said. "He said his right knee hurts."

Francona then joked, "The jaywalking, if you do it right, you won't hurt your knee."

Before the game, Ramírez told reporters his knee has been bothering him for about a week, but Francona said he had not been receiving treatment, not even for his hamstrings, in the last few days.

"I've just been trying to play it out," Ramírez said while jokingly singing for tips at his locker in the clubhouse, with his iPod docked to a speaker and a cup put out for donations from teammates. "I decided it was time to give it a rest."

Asked if he would be ready for the Yankees series, which begins tomorrow, Ramírez said, "I don't know. I'm day to day at this point."

Daisuke Matsuzaka, for one, was sufficiently impressed by Ramírez's musical talents that he placed some money in the cup.

Kevin Youkilis hit in Ramírez's No. 4 hole, Sean Casey served as the designated hitter, and Jacoby Ellsbury played left field. Francona said he planned to use Casey as DH, anyway, but envisioned Ramírez in left and Ellsbury in center. Coco Crisp, 1 for 11 against Seattle starter Felix Hernandez in his career, was not scheduled to play, but was in center.

Crisp singled and scored Boston's first run. Ellsbury went hitless in his first five at-bats but singled to start the 12th-inning rally that gave the Sox a 6-3 victory. He also made three fine defensive plays, the best when he ran down Jose Lopez's drive to the track in left-center to end the seventh.

Ramírez has hit safely in his last 11 games (19 for 39, .487). Francona did not use him to hit for Crisp with two on and two outs in the 11th. Crisp hit a check-swing grounder to shortstop to end the inning. The manager said Ramírez was not available to hit and would not offer a guess on whether he will play tomorrow.

Asked after the game if he expected to play, Ramírez said, "Don't worry about it."

Walking man

Something you may not have known about J.D Drew, who yesterday walked twice, once intentionally. On 171 career 3-and-0 counts, he has swung at the next pitch just six times and has never put it in play . . . When Dustin Pedroia stole second in the first inning for his 10th stolen base, that gave the Sox four players who have reached double digits in steals: Ellsbury (35), Crisp (14), and Julio Lugo (12) are the others. The last time the Sox had four players with 10 or more stolen bases was in 1995: John Valentin (20), Lee Tinsley (18), Luis Alicea (13), and Mo Vaughn (11) . . . Francona elected to keep Jed Lowrie at short instead of Alex Cora, who might have expected to play a day game after Lowrie played the night before. The manager has started Lowrie in five straight games and praised the way he has performed. He's batting .333 (6 for 18) with three RBIs and has played well in the field. Cora professed no knowledge of rumors swirling around him yesterday that he was headed to the White Sox. "If it was happening, I would know about it," he said.

Buchholz in step

Rookie Clay Buchholz picked off Ichiro Suzuki, who had led off the first with a single but was erased before Buchholz threw another pitch. Buchholz threw over twice, then picked off Suzuki as he went into his walking lead. "The first time, I saw whenever I stepped off how he was taking his steps," Buchholz said. "I tried to time it in my head, because I don't really peek over there before I come set, and right about when I was coming to a set, he took an extra step and I caught him between steps. Hard to do that on a consistent basis. I throw over there a lot, and a lot of guys aren't really far off the bag, but I'm trying to pound it in my head where they're taking a lead." . . . Ellsbury, who had an otherwise miserable trip at the plate (4 for 28, .143) and failed to get the ball out of the infield on his first five at-bats yesterday, on touching off the winning rally with a base hit off Sean Green to start the 12th: "Getting a win is the biggest thing. A hit's nice, but if I get a hit and don't score, it's all for nothing. It was nice, especially, to contribute." On running down Lopez's drive to the track in the seventh: "I was thinking I was running out of room. But I got a good jump on the ball, a good read."

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.