Hi All,

Manny out for the rest of the season? This is so sad. I know he needs
to get well but I'll miss him on the field. The games haven't been the
same without number 24.

Have a good weekend,

Lynne

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BALTIMORE -- Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after a closed-door
meeting with Manny Ramírez yesterday that "there's a chance" Ramírez,
who has been diagnosed with patellar tendinitis in his right knee,
will not play the rest of the season.

"He wants to play," Francona said before the Sox beat the Baltimore
Orioles, 6-5, last night, "but he can't."
"
Francona said he had spoken with Thomas Gill, the team's medical
director, before determining that Ramírez would be unavailable to play
this weekend against the Yankees, who took control of the American
League East race when they swept five games from the Sox in Fenway
Park last month, and can clinch their ninth straight division title
during a four-game series that opens tonight in Yankee Stadium.

"As much as we don't want to hear it, rest is probably what he
needs," Francona said.

The Yankees reduced their magic number to clinch to six by beating the
Devil Rays, 7-4, last night, and Sox second baseman Mark Loretta kept
it from shrinking further by singling home the tying run in the eighth
and the winning run in the ninth, with Mike Timlin inducing Ramon
Hernandez to roll into a game-ending double play with the tying run at
third for the save.

"You can't run from guys, nor will we -- if we're going to win games,
we need him, whether it's the seventh, eighth, or ninth," Francona
said of turning to Timlin.

In the ninth, Timlin gave up a leadoff double to Melvin Mora, leading
Francona to gamble on an intentional walk to Miguel Tejada with one
out , before Timlin got Hernandez to hit a ground ball to shortstop
Alex Cora.

"It's not fun," Francona said of putting the potential winning run on
base. "The percentages are not in your favor."

The odds of seeing Ramírez also seem greatly reduced after his meeting
with Francona, which came at the manager's request. Since taking
himself out of the last game of the Yankee series Aug. 21 with a sore
hamstring, Ramírez has appeared in eight games, batting .091 (2 for
22). In the first four games of the Yankee series, he went 8 for 11
with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and 7 RBIs while walking seven times.

Last night was the 14th game he has missed since then.

"I don't know that that's going to happen," Francona said of shutting
down Ramírez the rest of the way. "I do think it's a possibility. If
he sits another week, we try to balance winning every game you can and
using common sense. We just talked about it a little bit.

"He said not only when he runs, but when he tries to get into his
balance point hitting, it's when it's kind of, I shouldn't say it's
grinding, but it's not feeling a lot better yet. In talking to Dr.
Gill, the one thing he needs is rest, and if he plays, that's not
rest. [Ramírez] was very open, and I was appreciative. He's been like
that all year. We'll do the best we can, like we do with everybody."

Because it is Ramírez, who has a history of citing hamstring injuries
under dubious circumstances, questions have been raised about this
latest injury, especially after a report in the Providence Journal
during the Yankee series that Ramírez had to be talked into playing
one game because he was miffed about a scorer's ruling. Ramírez, who
does not speak with the Boston print media, has never responded to
that allegation, but while on the West Coast last month, general
manager Theo Epstein alluded to Ramírez's problem as a "legitimate
injury."

David Ortiz has defended Ramírez, saying his knee has been bothering
him for some time, and on Wednesday night, another Sox veteran said he
was convinced Ramírez was injured, that Ramírez had expressed
frustration to him about his inability to play on the West Coast swing
and his awareness of how much the team needed him.

Third baseman Mike Lowell also had addressed the subject of Ramírez's
health when he first went down with the injury .

"Since this is my first year of playing with Manny, I don't know how
things were dealt with," Lowell said at the time. "He's obviously a
different personality and I have to give him the benefit of the doubt
because we ran him out there every day, he played every day. So if he
says he can't play, I've got to believe he can't play."

Ramírez is batting .318 with 34 home runs and 101 RBIs. He is second
in the AL in on-base percentage at .436 and fourth in slugging
percentage at .612. Earlier this season, he had a career-best 27-game
hitting streak.

Without Ramírez in the lineup last night , Ortiz walked four times,
including once to load the bases in the eighth, when the Sox rallied
to tie the score on three singles. Ortiz fouled out to third with the
bases loaded in the ninth, ending the series 0 for 10 with five walks.
He is hitting just .167 (9 for 54) against the Orioles, his worst
average against any team this season.

Source: Gordon Edes / bostonglobe.com