Rise and shine for Ramírez in his return

Manny could rip IV tubes out of his arm, vault out of the ICU, and crack a single up the middle on the first pitch he's seen in six months. Manny could stand alongside a 4-foot snowbank in White River Junction, Vt., on Feb. 10 and hit the first 90-mile-per-hour fastball thrown his way. He could skip part of spring training (and has), then show up rested and ready to go 4 for 4 against C.C. Sabathia.

Fall out of bed and hit? Manny should be doing commercials for Barry and Eliot.

Manny came to the plate last night for the first time since Aug. 28 (his hair looked a couple of inches longer) and ripped a single to right on a 1-and-2 pitch. When he came around to score on a double by Mike Lowell, all was well in the Red Sox' universe. A few hours later, things looked even better as the Sox reduced the magic number to 3 with a 7-3 win over the A's while the Yankees were losing in Tampa.

Getting Manny back was the best news of the night.

"He came through fine," said manager Terry Francona. "That's good news for us."

"You can't replace Manny," added Julio Lugo, who enjoyed a family moment when he faced his brother, Ruddy, and walked in the eighth.

Manny was last seen in the sixth inning of a game against the Yankees in the Bronx Aug. 28. He came out with a strained left oblique, and for a while, it seemed he was never coming back. There was patience with the vague nature of Manny's condition during his first couple of weeks on the shelf, but as the games started to pile up, a few fans became restless.

Francona found himself answering Manny questions twice a day, and cynics wondered whether this might be a repeat of 2006 when Manny shut it down for no apparent reason (patella tendinitis was the official excuse, but even the most loyal Mannyites were skeptical by the end of the season).

"I could tell he was hurting," said David Ortiz. "His swing, he was pushing the ball, he wasn't going through it like he normally does."

The Sox went 12-12 with Manny out of the lineup. Ortiz stopped seeing quality pitches and we missed a lot of goofy plays that could have been made in left field.