With the Red Sox leading, 3-1, and runners on second and third in the fifth inning, San Diego manager Bruce Bochy decided to intentionally walk Manny Ramirez, loading the bases for Nomar Garciaparra.
The shortstop, in his second game since returning from an Achilles' injury, made Bochy pay as he doubled in his first two runs of the season with a drive high off the Wall to break the game open as the Sox scored five runs in the inning en route to a 9-3 rout before 35,068 at Fenway Park.
"I was expecting it," Garciaparra said. "Manny has been on a tear. I'm just getting back into the lineup."
Defining moment for this Red Sox lineup?
"Tonight they got a chance to see how deep this lineup starts getting," said Kevin Millar, who doubled in Ramirez and Garciaparra. "And then all of a sudden it starts to become a hassle. That's the depth we bring. It's a snowball effect." The Sox remain 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the American League East as the storied Los Angeles Dodgers come to town for a three-game series beginning tonight. Garciaparra said after the game that he will likely get the night off after playing all nine innings last night and six Wednesday night in his season debut.The Garciaparra-enhanced Sox lineup -- which supported a seven-inning, two-run performance by starter Curt Schilling -- saw the red-hot Ramirez (three hits, three RBIs) belt a two-run homer, and second baseman Pokey Reese (on his 31st birthday) had a home run among his three hits from the No. 9 spot. David Ortiz had four hits to pace the 13-hit attack. It was clear after Schilling settled in (he allowed a run in the first) that the jammed-packed house at Fenway, which gave Garciaparra another rousing ovation, would appreciate the night's work a little more than it did the 8-1 shellacking at the hands of the Padres the night before.
The Sox seemed to survive two scary moments with Garciaparra. He was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning off the side of the left knee, and in the ninth, he fielded a grounder and stepped on the second base bag awkwardly with his right ankle. But he did stay in the game until the end.
"Might as well take the focus off the other areas of my body," kidded Garciaparra about the hit by pitch. He said the awkward way he hit the bag did not hurt his Achilles', though he soaked in a whirlpool after the game.
"I actually lost the ball up the middle and it got me off my rhythm," said Garciaparra of hitting the bag. "Somebody put second base where it's not supposed to be. I'll have to talk to the groundskeeper about that."
