Rogers, who also suffered a deep bruise of his right forearm after David Ortiz hit a liner back at him with two outs in the first inning, lasted five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts in a 16-5 loss to the Red Sox, who put up a nine-spot for good measure in the eighth after the Rangers had cut the deficit to 7-5.
The Red Sox, who stretched their home winning streak to 11, are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees, Boston's largest lead since finishing the 1995 season seven games better than New York.
It's amazing how the defending world champions pulverize bad pitching. And the Rangers have bad pitching.
It's also amazing that teams keep pitching around Ortiz and are willing to take their chances with Manny Ramirez.
While it's a pick-your-poison strategy, pitching to Ramirez doesn't seem a wise move these days.
''I don't know what the idea is," said Ortiz, ''but you take a risk, pitching around me and then facing Manny. That's not a guy you want to face when you have men on base. Manny can cover both sides of the plate. I don't care about walking as long as Manny keeps hitting home runs and I'm on first that's OK. I don't want him to hit doubles when I'm on because I have to run my [butt] off."
Ramirez's three-run blast off Rogers highlighted Boston's five-run fourth. Ramirez is an RBI machine. The All-Star left fielder has 32 homers and 107 RBIs with 49 games left to play.
''I think he's one of the best hitters I've ever seen," marveled Sox manager Terry Francona. ''I think you put him in our lineup and it makes it even better because off David and everybody else. If those guys hit with men on base, they're going to drive the majority of them in."
''It's just amazing to watch him sometimes," said Sox outfielder Gabe Kapler. ''You just wonder how he does it. You wonder what it's like to have that kind of talent to be able to hit the ball like he does. There are times he looks like he's not even in the at-bat. And then all of sudden he locks back into it and pops a double or a home run. We know as hitters how hard it is to be in that situation, and to watch Manny do it so effortlessly is impressive and it's awe-inspiring."
