"I can't play nine, but I can play 13," Ramirez said afterward, a winking reference to how he often comes out of a game for a defensive replacement.
Not last night, when he doubled in the first inning to set up Boston's second run, then came up empty his next four trips to the plate until Mora sailed a throw over the head of first baseman Kevin Millar in the 13th.
Mike Timlin pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the 12th for the win, surviving a bobble and recovery by shortstop Julio Lugo, while Jonathan Papelbon worked the 13th for his first save in eight days.
"We had to bob and weave, and we did," manager Terry Francona said.
"Good thing, because after we scored those two [in the first], it took us about 4 1/2 hours to score again."
The Sox bullpen stranded seven runners from the ninth inning on: Manny Delcarmen stranding two in the ninth, when he induced Mora to roll to third; Craig Hansen stranding two in the 10th, when he whiffed Ramon Hernandez; and Timlin leaving them loaded in the 12th, retiring Hernandez on a fly ball to the track in left, where Ramírez casually gathered it in and flipped it to a fan in the stands.
Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits and stole three bases, the first Sox player to steal more than two bases in a game since Jerry Remy bagged four on June 14, 1980. The final two Sox steals came with Lowell on the front end of a double steal against inattentive reliever Dennis Sarfate, the last of seven Baltimore pitchers.
"I don't think we've ever told Mikey Lowell before a game to steal third, but our guys were heads up," Francona said.
The Sox had scored in just two of their previous 31 innings.
The win, just their second in seven games on the trip, enabled the Sox to remain a game behind Tampa Bay in the American League East. It took them 4 hours 49 minutes to do so. Francona said the Sox would discuss adding another reliever before tonight's game.
"You play that long," Ellsbury said, "you hope to come out with a win."
