Ramirez has grand old time

Really no need, it seems. Consider: Ramirez didn't have to catch a single ball -- no Devil Ray flied out to left -- and in four plate appearances he walked, homered twice, and flied out. All in a day's work, and all, evidently, without breaking a sweat.

"It was fun to sit in the dugout and watch what Manny did," said Boston starter Matt Clement, who won his first game as a Red Sox in his third attempt.

Ramirez -- he of 390 career home runs coming into the season -- had never gone this long to begin a campaign without going deep. Last night was game No. 11 for the Red Sox. The closest he'd come to this was 2003, when he hit homer No. 1 in game No. 9 (his 36th at-bat).

Last night, Ramirez launched No. 1 in his 39th at-bat of the season, a two-run shot that cleared the Monster seats in the third. He then came up the next inning with the bases loaded.

"You could feel it on the bench," reliever Alan Embree said. "We felt it coming."

Ramirez, on an 0-and-1 slider, cranked a grand slam off the base of the light tower below the Coke bottles, helping to move the Sox (6-5) above .500 for the first time this season.

It was Ramirez's 18th career grand slam, most among active players. The homer tied him for third on the all-time grand slam list with Willie McCovey and Robin Ventura, behind only Eddie Murray (19) and Lou Gehrig (23). It was Ramirez's 40th career multi-homer game (38 two-homer games, two three-homer games).

That was plenty for Clement, the $25.5 million offseason acquisition, who walked just two and struck out six in his Fenway debut before 35,106 on a 46-degree night.

Clement, who worked seven innings, threw 108 pitches, matching his pitch count in his most recent outing, Sunday in Toronto. But this time he threw 74 strikes, compared with the 59 he threw against the Blue Jays. Before last night, he'd thrown only 55 percent of his pitches this season (110 of 199) for strikes.