Sox Beat: Ramirez turning corner?

BOSTON – TO THE Red Sox, the early-season slumps of Manny Ramirez are now an exercise in sound and fury signifying nothing.

Last year, Ramirez hit .241 with no homers and 6 RBIs in his first 16 games. Thereafter, he hit .329 with a .444 OBP and .666 slugging mark, finishing the year with 35 longballs and knocking in 102.

In 2005, the cleanup hitter's average stood at .224 on May 27. Over the season's final four months, Ramirez then raked at a .321 clip with 34 homers and 106 RBIs.

So it was that the Sox placed little stock in the .193 batting average, .313 OBP and pitiful .263 slugging mark that Ramirez toted into last night's 7-6 win over the Yankees. The evidence of a full career of hitting greatness can render slumps all but meaningless.

"If a guy's a .290 hitter at the end of the year, he might not be there in April," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona before last night's game. "There's a pretty good chance that when you look up at the end of the year, Manny's going to have 30 (homers) and 100 (RBIs). He's just going to do it a little different way."

Last night, Ramirez may have begun that process, going 3-for-5 with a homer and two singles while spearheading both Boston rallies in a 7-6 win over the Yankees. With two outs in the third inning, he crushed a Chase Wright fastball over the Monster Seats in left-center for the first of four consecutive homers by the Sox.

Boston's Manny Ramirez hits a solo shot off New York Yankees pitcher Chase Wright in the third inning of last night's game.

►Sox homer four straight times to sweep Yanks
►Sox Beat: Bullpen is unexpected strength
►Sox Beat: Sox' Tavarez may face quick hook
►Sox Beat: Anniversary of shame

Then, with the Sox trailing 5-4 in the seventh, Ramirez laced a leadoff single to right against reliever Scott Proctor, and later scored on Mike Lowell's three-run homer. The performance was anything but surprising.

During his slow starts in 2005 and 2006, Ramirez was a mechanical mess, his head pulling off the ball and his legs often becoming unstable. Such had not been the case this year.

"There's been times before when Manny's started out slow and you go, Wow--he's scuffling to find it.' He doesn't look like that to me right now," said Francona. "I'm actually surprised he hasn't gotten hot yet, just because his approach hasn't been that far off."

Ramirez hit four warning track fly balls through the season's first 16 games, home run bids that may have been casualties of the chilly April conditions. Those loud outs, in turn, allowed both Ramirez and his club to remain unconcerned about his early struggles.

"He's squared up some balls that at any other time of year would have been way out. He's just hit a little bit of bad luck," noted hitting coach Dave Magadan, who lauded Ramirez for his extensive video work. "He's done a lot of work. I've got a lot of confidence that he'll come around. His track record speaks for itself."

It is a concept that Ramirez himself seems to understand as well as anyone. Unlike some hitters, who visibly press when slumping, Ramirez reveals rarely wears his misfortune.

"Some of us used to tell ourselves that we were going to hit," added Francona. "He knows that he's going to hit. To know you're that good, to be that confident, to not have to bluff your way through it, is special."

__

LESTER UPDATE: For Jon Lester, the goal is now tantalizingly close. For the first time since he began chemotherapy treatments last September, Lester returned to Fenway Park yesterday to throw a side session in the Boston bullpen, an event that represented a modest milestone.

"Sometimes this offseason I didn't think I'd be back pitching," Lester said while addressing the media in the same room where he discussed his cancer diagnosis last Sept. 6. "Any time you're dealing with something like that, it's a tough thing to come back from."

As he stood 350 feet from the mound where he hopes to resume his residence this summer, the months of doubt faded. His four-start stint in Single-A Greenville concluded, Lester will now head to Triple-A Pawtucket in the next stage of his recovery. But the memory of his return to Fenway will remain palpable.

"I feel strong, I feel healthy. I feel about as normal as I can be," Lester said. "(But) it's just a short little trip, coming in here, tease me a little bit, then send me back out."

All the same, the time that Lester must wait for his return to the Red Sox appears to be dwindling. He will face pitch counts in a pair of starts for the PawSox--80 or 85 on Wednesday, more the following game--before the organization loosens the reins.

"In about another two starts, the shackles are going to come off from our end," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who noted that the pitcher looked strong and showed good life on his pitches in yesterday's session. "He can compete."

Such words reflect the continuation of a remarkable story.

__

CRISP OUT: Coco Crisp was scratched about an hour before last night's game against the Yankees with soreness near his left oblique, possibly the result of his encounter with a bullpen wall while chasing an Alex Rodriguez homer on Friday.

Alex Speier covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News.