The Sox, who had a season-high 18 hits, sent 11 batters to the plate in the eighth, when Trot Nixon, who earlier ended his homerless streak at 123 at-bats, drew a bases-loaded walk from Brad Halsey to force home one run and Jason Varitek cleared the bases with a double to the wall in center. Nixon ran through DeMarlo Hale's stop sign to score, grabbing the plate with his hand before catcher Jason Kendall could apply the tag. The Sox added two more runs in the inning on singles by Mike Lowell and a fielder's choice.
Oakland's frustration spilled over during the inning, as reliever Justin Duchscherer, lifted for Halsey after the walk to Ramírez, verbally accosted plate umpire Mark Wegner, signaling with his fingers that the umpire had missed at least two pitches. Duchscherer was ejected.
Ramírez extended his hitting streak to a season-best 11 games with an RBI single in a two-run first inning, then hit his 28th home run of the season (and third in five games on this West Coast trip) in the third. He knocked in a third run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
``That was a weird game," manager Terry Francona said. ``We get up early, then it looks like we're going to have to hang on for dear life."
Nixon would reach base four times -- he walked twice and was hit by a pitch by Scott Sauerbeck in the ninth (Sauerbeck left with a groin strain immediately afterward) -- and finished with three RBIs, on a first-inning sacrifice fly, his home run in the third ( immediately after Ramírez had taken Windsor deep), and on the bases-loaded walk in the eighth.
Francona said that while Nixon was hitting just .213 against lefties and was 0 for 3 against Halsey, who had given up a home run to Wily Mo Peña last month in Boston, he elected to go with Nixon because Halsey had been having trouble with lefties.
