But now, in the eighth, the ball was headed for the distant ``399 FT" marker in left-center, with the Sox trailing by a run.
The Yankee in the neighborhood, Melky Cabrera, calculated his takeoff, leaped, and came up with a stunning piece of mid air retrieval work.
``That," David Ortiz told Ramírez after the game, ``is why when I hit my [homer], I hit it 500 feet."
And that was why the Sox didn't play on last night, instead absorbing a 2-1 loss before a sellout Yankee Stadium gathering of 55,141 who saw perhaps the best-played game between these teams this season. Sox rookie David Pauley, who in his only previous major league start was rocked for 11 hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings, pitched with poise that even he acknowledged was ``a little bit" surprising.
As good as New York's Chien-Ming Wang was (7 IP, 8 H, 1 ER), the 22-year-old Pauley (6 2/3 IP, 8 H, 2 R) was nearly as good. In fact, Pauley probably should have sent the game to the eighth with the score tied at 1-1.
For six innings he'd been calm, economical, and expert in managing damage, allowing just six hits, one in each inning. He'd held the Nos. 1-4 hitters (Johnny Damon, Cabrera, Jason Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez) to just one hit, a bunt by Damon leading off the first. Those four Yankees, through six innings, were 1 for 12.
Pauley appeared on his way to a 1-2-3 seventh when Miguel Cairo, the No. 9 hitter, chopped a ball just to Pauley's left. The pitcher appeared to have it but it disappeared under his glove. A charging Mark Loretta couldn't come up with it, either, and Cairo reached with two outs.
``I just didn't get my glove down, and it scooted right under it," said Pauley, who otherwise would have been through seven with this line: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 K's, 2 BBs, 1 HR.
