Yup. I'm going to say it.
That was Manny being Manny, all right.
That was Manny with his first career postseason walkoff homer and, believe it or not, his first walkoff, period, in 11 years. And that, too, was off an Angels pitcher (Troy Percival).
That was Manny Ramírez, arms aloft, as he had the exquisite pleasure of watching his game-winning three-run homer off Francisco Rodriguez soar off into the night, or, I should say, early morning.
That was Manny Ramírez, following an intentional walk to David Ortiz for the second time in the game, putting the Red Sox up, 2-0, in this series, with his first home run since he returned to the lineup after a problem with his oblique muscle.
Oh, that was Manny being Manny, all right. The crowd of 37,706 knew from the millisecond the ball left the bat that this game was over, that the Red Sox were 6-3 winners. Manny c-r-u-s-h-e-d that K-Rod 1-and-0 pitch. It was, hello, Lansdowne Street. This one may have had negative hang time.
"At that point, I just wanted to see the ball and trust myself," said Manny, issuing his first public pronouncements of the 2007 season. "You know, I got a lot of confidendce in myself. He's one of the greatest closers in the game and I'm one of the best hitters in the game. You know, he missed his spot, and [I] got good timing on the ball, and that's it."
The crowd had to sit through a lot in order to see Manny be Manny. It took 4 hours 5 minutes to play itself out, but it was worth the wait. They had to squirm through one of those tedious Daisuke Matsuzaka starts, for openers. You might say that was Dice-K being Dice-K, what with the nibbling and the 3-and-2 counts and the 31 pitches in the first and the 28 in the second.
It was almost as if Terry Francona had decided he just couldn't watch it any longer, as he pulled Dice-K with two outs in the fifth and men on first and second. Dice-K had thrown 96 pitches, and that was after being reasonably economic with his pitch count in the third and fourth.
"A lot of pitches," Francona pointed out. "A lot of deep counts, and I thought even when he started ahead, he found a way to get back into hitter's counts."
Dice-K had left the game trailing, 3-2. The Red Sox tied it in the fifth on a Dustin Pedroia double down the left-field line, an intentional walk to David Ortiz, a quite unintentional walk to Manny, and a Mike Lowell sacrifice fly. And then the Red Sox' bats went into cold storage.