Projo Sports Blog

The Philadelphia Phillies were very careful last night with the red-hot Manny Ramirez, who reached base in three of his four plate appearances and knocked in a run with an RBI single. But on a night when former Red Sox teammate Nomar Garciaparra returned to the Dodger lineup from a stint on the disabled list (he went 0 for 3 with a walk), it was pinch hitter Andre Ethier, who has lost playing time to Ramirez, who ended up winning the game for Los Angeles.

The Phillies' ace, Cole Hamels, intentionally walked Ramirez in the first inning, with Matt Kemp at third and two out. But the move did not pay off, as Casey Blake singled home Kemp to give the Dodgers an early lead. After flying out to lead off the fourth, Ramirez hit an RBI single, knocking in Juan Pierre, in the sixth inning to cut a Philadelphia lead to 3-2. In the bottom of the eighth inning, with the score still 3-2, relief pitcher Chad Durbin hit Ramirez with a pitch to load the bases with no one out. The Dodgers got just one run, though, because after Blake's sacrifice fly, Garciaparra hit into a double play.

The Dodgers won it in the bottom of the ninth against former Red Sox reliever J.C. Romero, when Ethier came in as a pinch hitter and singled home Russell Martin.

In 11 games with the Dodgers, Ramirez is now 20 for 42 (.476) with a .560 OBP, an .833 slugging percentage and 14 RBI. The Dodgers are 6-5 with Ramirez; the Red Sox are 8-3 without him.

Meanwhile, on the hair front, Ramirez showed up to last night's game with looking clean-cut -- but it turned out that he just had his hair up in a bun under his hat. Ramirez is still expected to get his dreadlocks cut later this week -- manager Joe Torre said last night that "he's going to follow through with what he said."

The Philadelphia Inquirer, following the Phils on their West Coast swing, reports these facts about the Dodgers since the Ramirez trade:

-In the first 24 hours after the trade, the Dodgers sold 30,000 tickets, a regular-season record.
-They sold 50,000 tickets and 300 season-ticket packages in the weekend following the trade.
-In their first homestand with Ramirez in uniform, the Dodgers sold all 2,500 Ramirez T-shirts they had in stock.
-Trafic to losdodgers.com (the club's Spanish-language web site) has experienced a 300 percent to 400 percent increase since the trade.

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, former Red Sox outfielder Brandon Moss went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts, dropping his average to .175 since Boston dealt him as part of the Ramirez trade. Pittsburgh lost to Cincinnati, 5-1.

 Tags  hair Joe Torre Los Angeles Dodgers Manny Ramirez Nomar Garciaparra Philadelphia Phillies

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