BOSTON – Dustin Pedroia erased a terrible at-bat with one patient swing, wiping out Manny Ramirez’s chance to beat his old team.
Pedroia singled home the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Boston Red Sox overcame Ramirez’s homer to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 on Saturday.
Additional Photos
Bill Hall opened the ninth with a single against Ronald Belisario (1-1), but was cut down at second on Daniel Nava’s attempted sacrifice. After Darnell McDonald struck out, Marco Scutaro walked and Pedroia singled to right on a 1-2 fastball from closer Jonathan Broxton.
“When you go out and the guy’s throwing 100 and it looks like he’s 9 feet tall, I was thinking I’ve got to wake up,” he said. “I check swung twice. When I check swung, it really wasn’t going that good. I just stepped out, thinking I’ve got to put the ball in play.”
Nava slid in headfirst, easily beating the throw from Andre Ethier.
“It’s funny. In the minors we’re not allowed to slide head first,” Nava said. “I was trying to make up for the bunt. I was really chugging around third. I wasn’t going to get deked at the plate. You want to forget the bunt, but it was still on my mind.”
Dodgers Manager Joe Torre felt it was the right time to bring in Broxton.
“With a man in scoring position, that was the only time I was going to bring him in that situation,” he said.
Ramirez homered in his second game back at Fenway Park, a sixth-inning solo shot off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The former Red Sox star also had his first stolen base since 2008.
Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer and Kevin Youkilis had a solo shot for the Red Sox, who committed four errors.
Wakefield made his 200th career start at Fenway, tying Roger Clemens for the most in club history.
“I’m very fortunate to be able to wear the uniform for as long as I can and share a record with Roger Clemens,” he said.
Jonathan Papelbon (2-3) worked a scoreless ninth for the win.
NOTES: Red Sox right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka is expected to come off the disabled list and start against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.
Matsuzaka was scratched just before the first pitch of his scheduled start last Saturday against Philadelphia and later placed on the 15-day DL because of a strained forearm.
He threw 49 pitches in a side session before Saturday’s game against the Dodgers and said he felt good.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.