"My train doesn't stop," said Ramírez, who at long last stole Big Papi's signature line - a walkoff home run, his first in a Boston uniform - to give the Sox a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels and a commanding two games to none lead in their best-of-five Division Series.
"We got the Big Daddy, Curt Schilling, going tomorrow," said Jonathan Papelbon, who got the last four outs on a night when the Sox bullpen was almost as fabulous as Ramírez, holding the Angels hitless over the last 4 1/3 innings. "I think anybody on this team would love to have him going for us to seal the deal, and I know he'll be ready to go."
Daisuke Matsuzaka may have been an unsatisfying first course - he failed to make it through five innings, the familiar bugaboo (the gnats were in Cleveland) of nibbling instead of attacking hitters, which drove his pitch count to 96 by the time he was lifted for Javier Lopez with the Sox down, 3-2.
The nightcap, however, was epic: Ramírez driving a 1-and-0 pitch from closer Francisco Rodriguez over the wall after the Angels elected to walk David Ortiz in tentionally for the second time in the game and the fourth time in the series.
"Well, you really pick your poison," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of the decision to walk Ortiz in an inning that began with Julio Lugo's first-pitch single off Justin Speier. "We've talked about this all week. Both those guys [Ortiz and Ramírez] are terrific. I just think in that situation and the situation before, we're going to take some chances with some matchups. It just made sense not to go after David, and it didn't work tonight."
Ramírez may have been so overcome with the magnitude of Manny in the moment that he forgot to maintain media silence, granting an on-field interview to Jose Mota on TBS, then making an unprecedented appearance in the postgame interview room.
"I remember when I came to the clubhouse today," Ramírez told Mota, "[Jason] Varitek told me, 'Hey, you can't leave Boston without a home run.' I said, 'You know it.' "
