BALTIMORE - Even if Manny Ramírez seems bent on hitting a homer a day, there was no minimizing the news after Hideki Okajima's meltdown in last night's 6-3 Red Sox loss to the Orioles that David Ortiz has a left wrist injury that is expected to sideline him at least a month.
"Man, those are your weapons, your hands are your weapons, your wrist, everything, those are your weapons," said Sean Casey, whose playing time is likely to spike with Ortiz headed to the disabled list.
Ortiz is out with what the team is calling a partial tear of the sheath that keeps in place the extensor carpi ulnaris tendon, which governs the action of extending and adducting the wrist. That clicking sound Ortiz heard was the ECU tendon snapping over the bone because it had slipped out of its groove.
"Once you lose your hands, there's not much you can do," said Casey, who tore cartilage in the same area of the wrist while still in the minors in 1997 and missed eight weeks. "You really paralyze yourself as a ballplayer, as soon as you lose your wrists and your hands."
Ramírez has assured one and all that he intends to hit 600 home runs before he vanishes for good into Kevin Millar's Brazilian rain forest. No one, however, imagined that he'd be aiming to do so before the end of this season.
Despite a tender hamstring that has bothered him the last couple of weeks and factored in Terry Francona's decision to use him at DH, Ramírez hit No. 502 last night, his third home run in three games. Home run historian David Vincent said no previous member of the 500-homer club had homered in the next two games after hitting No. 500.
With 102 games left, you don't have to be smarter than a fifth-grader to recognize the mathematical possibilities, though his current pace might be too much to ask, especially with Ortiz now the designated spectator.
"We've got to keep playing until he gets back," said Ramírez, who came to bat a final time with two on and two outs in the ninth against Orioles closer George Sherrill but lined to right to end the game. "He's a big part of the team.
"What can you do? You don't plan to get hurt. When that happens, be patient, keep playing the way you're playing, and wait for him.
"Just pray that he gets back soon, and move on."
The Sox ended their three-city, 10-game trip with a 4-6 record, and will be 1 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay when they face the Rays tonight in Fenway Park, where the Sox have won 10 straight.
Francona begged off on speculating what his lineup will look like in Ortiz's absence. "We'll figure it out," he said.
