We have worried that the kid at second base, Dustin Pedroia,
might not be ready for the twists and turns and flat-out fire of big
league pitching.

We have worried that Jason Varitek is on what the experts call "a
downward spiral," that too many crouches behind the dish during the
years have taken a toll on el capitan of the Red Sox.

We have worried about the rain, the new Red Sox broadcast team,
Curt Schilling's blog, Mike Lowell's errors, Coco Crisp's injuries,
Hideki Okajima's neck and Mike Timlin's birth certificate.

After his performance against the Seattle Mariners last night at
Fenway Park we are growing increasingly worried about Daisuke
Matsuzaka's control.

We are consumers of Red Sox baseball.

We worry.

But we never worried about Manny Ramirez.

That is, we never worried about whether Manny Ramirez would hit.

The other stuff - the injuries (real or imagined), the wacky displays
of defense, the whispered phone calls from agents about a new trade
request, the so-called Manny Moments - that's not what we are talking
about.

We are talking about hitting.

And we always knew Manny Ramirez would hit.

"And when he starts to hit," Red Sox manager Terry Francona has said
dozens of times in these first weeks of the new season, "he's going to
hit home runs in bunches."

In powering the Red Sox to their 8-7 win against the Mariners in last
night's makeup game, he hit two home runs. Both were clocked, the kind
of homers you ooh and ah over. The kind Manny hits when he's hot. And
he's hot.

The first one, a two-run shot off Seattle starter Horacio Ramirez in
the fourth inning, sailed into the Monster seats. The second one, the
game-winner, broke up a 7-7 tie in the bottom of the eighth. It was a
cannon shot off reliever Chris Reitsma, and it traveled beyond the Red
Sox bullpen.

"He hit that ball like a power left-handed hitter," said Francona, and
he's right. The likes of David Ortiz, and before him Mo Vaughn, and
before him Yaz, and before him Teddy Ballgame, jacked fastballs over
the Sox bullpen.

But Manny Ramirez? Right-handed hitters simply don't do it that often.
And when they do - hey, Doug Mirabelli put one out there last month -
you talk about it, remember it. Blog it.

"His track record is that when he gets hot, he doesn't get hot with
singles," Francona said. "You look up (at the scoreboard), and they're
putting batting averages up and stuff, and RBIs and stuff, and all of
a sudden, it's the middle of May and there are a bunch of RBIs up
there for him. It's just the way he operates."

Schilling, often a critic of Boston's sporting press, points out that
nobody in possession of a pen or a microphone has spoken the words,
"Manny isn't hitting and it's a problem."

"If you watch the games," Schilling said, "then you know he's been
hitting. He's had good at-bats. Watch him and you'll see.

"Plus, when they talk about guys who have done it before, they're
usually talking about guys who have done it for three or four years.
This guy has done it for 10 years. And he's still in his prime. It's
scary."

You want to talk scary? The Red Sox jumped out to a fast start without
Manny hitting the ball. They beat the Yankees five out of six times
without Manny hitting the ball.

Now, Manny is hitting the ball. And just as Francona promised, they
are not singles. They are home runs. To left. To right. Whatever.

It's the surest sign of all that the warm weather is here.

Source: Steve Buckley / bostonherald.com