Timing was on his side

"That was big," said pitcher Julian Tavarez, who was watching on a clubhouse TV when Ramírez hit a changeup from Blue Jays reliever Shaun Marcum into the right-center-field seats in the eighth. "I was pulling for Manny, I was saying, 'C'mon, we got to get him going.' He hit the ball at the right time, the right place.

"I was like, 'Wow. My boy.' I just gave him a big hug and said, 'Watch out, Manny's back.' "

Winning time came courtesy of Alex Cora, the backup shortstop who turned a game-saving double play in the eighth despite absorbing a body block of dubious legality from 236-pound Lyle Overbay, then limped to the plate in the ninth to stroke a triple that knocked home pinch runner Julio Lugo. Cora scored a bonus run on Coco Crisp's sacrifice fly.

"I didn't know Alex could hit a ball that far," Tavarez said of Cora's drive to the left-center gap, both Lugo and Cora sprinting around the bases in textbook fashion.

But for all the elements that went into a Sox win on an afternoon they threw No. 5 starter Tavarez against Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay, the Blue Jays had the tying runs on base or at the plate in the ninth in both of their losses in the series.

Yesterday, as he did the night before, Jonathan Papelbon nailed down the win. After issuing a leadoff walk, he fanned two before finally getting Alex Rios on fly to right on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.

Marcum was so disgusted with the changeup he threw Ramírez with Crisp aboard on one of his two bunt singles, he said, "I think my little sister could have hit it as far, if not farther."

Given the way Ramírez had been hitting, that was almost irrelevant.

The Mendoza Line is baseball-speak for a .200 batting average, named after a light-hitting utility infielder of the mid-1970s/early '80s named Mario Mendoza. The story is told that it first came into use after Hall of Famer George Brett was quoted as saying, "The first thing I look for in the Sunday papers is who is below the Mendoza Line."