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Ramirez's Blast Lifts Boston

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The Associated Press

Published: October 6, 2007

Updated: 10/06/2007 01:11 am

BOSTON - One fan got a baseball. The rest left with a memory.

Manny Ramirez hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Francisco Rodriguez and the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 Friday night, taking a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series.

The Red Sox, who tied the game in the fifth thanks to the friendly - and legal - grab of a front-row fan, have a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday.
Curt Schilling will face Jered Weaver in Game 3 in Anaheim. The bloody-socked hero of Boston's 2004 World Series run was on his way to the West Coast with Game 1 and 4 starter Josh Beckett, Manager Terry Francona said a few hours before Friday's game.

If so, they landed in time to catch the ending of the grueling, four-plus hour affair, in which Daisuke Matsuzaka needed 60 pitches to get through the first two innings.

Four relievers from Boston's well-rested bullpen threw 4 1/3 innings of hitless ball, with Jonathan Papelbon getting the last four outs for the win.

Ramirez's at-bat in the fifth continued after the fan, Danny Vinik of suburban Boston, snagged the ball as it was about to settle into Mathis' outstretched glove with one out in the fifth. The cleanup hitter ended up walking before Mike Lowell tied it with a long sacrifice fly that would have been the third out had Mathis caught the ball.

Lowell's sacrifice fly took Daisuke Matsuzaka off the hook after his ineffective playoff debut.

The major-league rookie with the $52 million, six-year contract left with two outs in the fifth and the Angels leading 3-2. He allowed three runs and seven hits with three walks.

Angels starter Kelvim Escobar lasted five innings and was charged with three runs and four hits with five walks.

The fans even were celebrating as Matsuzaka was giving up consecutive run-scoring doubles to Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera in the Angels' three-run second after J.D. Drew gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead with a two-run single in the first inning that lasted 36 innings and 61 pitches.

The crowd was cheering the news out of Cleveland where Travis Hafner's bases-loaded single had just given the Indians a 2-1 win in 11 innings and a 2-0 series lead over the New York Yankees, Boston's longtime rivals.

When the hit fell in, a roar went up and Matsuzaka waited until it subsided. Then he served up a 93 mph fastball that Figgins looped down the left-field line. Ramirez overran it, his hat falling close to the ball, and Figgins raced to second as Kendry Morales scored the tying run.

Matsuzaka's next pitch also was a 93 mph fastball and the results weren't any better. Cabrera hit that to left-center, where Coco Crisp retrieved it but had no chance to get the speedy Figgins at home.

The Angels' first run in the third came after Casey Kotchman led off with a walk, took third on Morales' single and scored on Mathis' ground out to third base.

David Ortiz had singled in the first, stretching his hot streak to 19-for-33 in 10 games.

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