With the echoes of that distant September day in 1918 long since faded, the Sox took another step in their march toward championship glory as Ramirez and Arroyo led the way in dispatching the Mariners, 9-0, before 44,401 at Safeco Field.
The victory vaulted the Sox six games ahead of the Angels in the wild-card race, a mighty soft cushion with 21 games to play, and kept them on the heels of the division-leading Yankees, 2 1/2 games off the pace.
"Obviously, we have good command of the wild card so we can just keep coming out every day trying to grind other teams into the ground and taking two out of every three," Arroyo said. "The Yankees are just going to be a bonus. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be fun, but getting into the playoffs is definitely the main objective."
Improving to 30-9 since Aug. 1 -- a stretch drive that would make Seattle Slew proud -- the Sox galloped ahead on the strength of a nifty outing by Arroyo and yet another offense-igniting home run by Ramirez. The hard-luck Arroyo finally broke even at 9-9 overall as he blanked the Mariners on four hits over seven innings and lowered his ERA to 4.04. He walked none and struck out six as he improved to 7-2 in his last 12 starts and continued to make a strong second-half case for himself as one of the league's best back-of-the-rotation starters.
"He has seized the opportunity," manager Terry Francona said. "He doesn't just want to pitch, he wants to be a winner and a contributor. You can see the difference. He's growing up kind of right in front of us."
As for Ramirez, he belted his 41st home run of the season, a solo shot off Jamie Moyer in the first inning, to join Jimmie Foxx as the only Sox hitters to slug at least 41 homers in two seasons. Not that Ramirez has left much doubt that he ranks with Foxx and Jim Rice as the top righthanded sluggers in franchise history.
Ramirez, who has homered five times in September, needs only five more to match Rice for the second most in a season in franchise history (Rice launched 46 in 1978). And he has a shot at Foxx's season record of 50 homers in 1938.
