Had Joe Torre deigned to leave a note for his successor, Joe Girardi, advising him on the do's and don'ts of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, this almost certainly would have been at, or near, the top of his list:
DON'T pitch to Manny Ramírez if you can avoid it.
In the years (1996-2007) Torre managed the Yankees, he ordered Ramírez intentionally walked 23 times in the regular season. On five occasions, he had his catcher hold up four fingers twice in the same game.
Given the chance to do the same yesterday afternoon, Girardi opted to have Mike Mussina - who already had struck out the other half of Boston's pick-your-poison quandary, slump-ridden David Ortiz - pitch to Ramírez with two on and first base open in the sixth inning. Ramírez, who earlier had homered off Mussina, responded with a two-run double, driving in the go-ahead runs in a 4-3 Sox win over the Bombers that tied this three-game set at a game apiece headed into tonight's finale.
"You always want Manny to hit," said Dustin Pedroia, who followed Jacoby Ellsbury's single with a double prior to Ramírez's decisive hit, a first-pitch line drive that kicked off the Sox bullpen wall and rolled into the center-field triangle.
"I thought they were going to pitch around him, trying to get him to chase, but Manny came out on that first pitch and drove it into the gap. I'm sure that's not the way they wanted it to happen.
"It was definitely a great at-bat. Manny smells those RBIs, and they come in bunches."
Kevin Youkilis followed Ramírez's hit with an RBI single off reliever Brian Bruney to make it 4-2, the extra run pivotal when Robinson Cano doubled home the third Yankees' run in the seventh off Sox starter Josh Beckett.
Rain kept the outcome hanging in the balance. Jonathan Papelbon received a summons with two outs and two on in the eighth, then waited out a 2-hour-11-minute rain delay to strike out Alex Rodriguez on three pitches, the last clocked at 96 miles an hour on the scoreboard radar.
Papelbon, who kept himself occupied during the delay by riding an exercise bike, struck out two more Yankees in the ninth, then retired Cano after an 11-pitch duel, Cano fouling off five of the last six pitches, on a ground ball to second to earn his fourth save. Papelbon was, to extend Hank Steinbrenner's characterization, the "mouse" that roared.
"I'm not sure how he did it," said manager Terry Francona, who actually had Papelbon warm up once during the delay when the tarp had been peeled back and it appeared play would resume, only for more rain to push things back another hour.
"His stuff was phenomenal. I'm not sure what's better, his arm or his heart."
