"I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit and drive it up the middle," Moss said. "We did such a great job battling back and Manny gave us a chance to pull it out. It was a fun night and we beat a great team. To win a game like this against a team like that is a big win for us."
This was basically two games in one - one dominated by Twins pitching, particularly starter Nick Blackburn, and the other marked by Boston's late-surging offense.
With the Sox trailing, 5-2 entering the eighth, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled off Dennys Reyes. In came Matt Guerrier, and Dustin Pedroia singled to shallow right- center to move Ellsbury to third. J.D. Drew grounded to second to produce the Sox' third run, then up came Ramírez, who had been 0 for 3 with a strikeout.
But he came through in a big way, just as he did the night before in the eighth inning, driving in the game's only run.
Ramírez has been long gone and unavailable to the media after games lately, but manager Terry Francona and other teammates have spoken on his behalf.
"It was nice seeing him hit the ball out of the ballpark," said Francona. "[Monday] night was what we needed - infield is in and he lines [a single] to right - but sometimes you need a home run."
And sometimes you need to continue an inning after a big home run. Thank Youkilis for that. He stroked a double into the gap in left-center, then got to third on a wild pitch. Moss then delivered his winning single to center.
Jonathan Papelbon came on to record his 27th save in the ninth in nail-biting fashion. Nick Punto doubled to center on a ball Coco Crisp dived for and went behind him. After a sacrifice by Denard Span advanced Punto to third, Papelbon struck out pinch hitter Jason Kubel on a 97-mile-per-hour fastball, passing on the splitter that sometimes gets him in trouble. He then got Alexi Casilla to ground to second to end the game.
The Crisp play could have been a mess.
