LOS ANGELES -- It was one of those you've-got-to-be-kidding moments in the kind
of game you'll never forget if you saw it and one worth claiming you saw it even
if you didn't.

Along the lines of Kirk Gibson or Steve Finley or the
back-to-back-to-back-to-back jacks, Manny Ramirez outdid even himself Wednesday.

Ramirez came off the bench on his Bobblehead Night on Wednesday and, with the
crowd already in a frenzy merely from his appearance, slugged a pinch-hit grand
slam into the Mannywood section of Dodger Stadium box seats to power the Dodgers
to a 6-2 win over the Reds and a sweep of their series. It was the first
pinch-hit homer of Ramirez's career.

"It was great, one of the best moments of my career," said Ramirez. "I'm just
happy it happened here. It was kind of crazy, but I loved it."

Ramirez was not in the lineup because of a bruised left hand suffered the
previous night. He took no batting practice before the game, no swings off a tee
into the netting the way Gibson did before his legendary World Series blast
while on his last legs. Ramirez took a few practice swings in front of a mirror
before the game and a couple more in the on-deck circle after manager Joe Torre
sent him to bat for winning pitcher Chad Billingsley with one out in the sixth
inning of a 2-2 tie.

Ramirez greeted reliever Nick Masset's first pitch, a 96-mph fastball, with a
screaming liner into the box seats next to the Dodgers bullpen. It was his 21st
career slam, second all-time to Lou Gehrig's 23. When the playful Ramirez
returned to the dugout, he celebrated by bobbling his head.

"He's a magic man," said Russell Martin. "That's as loud as I've ever heard a
crowd."

"Just freakish," said Randy Wolf. "If you saw this in the movies, you'd think,
no, that's stupid. That stuff doesn't happen. I'm not like a little kid in the
dugout, but after he hit that, I felt like a little kid."

"I've never seen anything like that before and Juan Pierre, who's been around
longer than me, said he's never seen it in his life," said Matt Kemp. "We're all
pretty amazed. And on Bobblehead Night, too? That was tight. I ran around the
bases laughing. I don't understand it. He hit a 96-mph pitch. Not 90 or 91. The
dude throws hard. That's crazy. No batting practice? Not off a tee? Nothing, and
he can do that? I'm in awe."

Ramirez was in the original lineup, but Torre said that was a staff
miscommunication. Reds starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo, a teammate of Ramirez's
in Boston, wasn't surprised by any of it.

"I don't think anybody was worried about his hand," said Arroyo." I know Manny.
He'll take a day off if he gets hit like that even if his hand is perfect. Don't
ever think when he goes to the plate that Manny Ramirez is hurt, because he's
not. If he was, he wouldn't be standing in the box."

The fifth straight win moved the Dodgers 27 games above .500 for the first time
since Gibson's 1988 team. They've now beaten the Reds in 20 of their last 23
games and the last 12 at home.

The planets all aligned for the at-bat, as Billingsley had been batting in the
eighth spot in the order because when Pierre replaces Ramirez, Torre likes to
bat Pierre ninth so the pitcher doesn't follow him. The sixth inning started
with Willy Taveras robbing Casey Blake of extra bases at the center-field fence,
then Arroyo walked James Loney and Kemp and Martin singled sharply to load the
bases. Reds manager Dusty Baker brought on Masset and up came Ramirez, who told
Torre before the game he could bat.

"A lot of money on that bench," Ramirez joked before the game, but the sellout
crowd that came for the bobbleheads knew who was coming before Ramirez was ever
announced and the decibel level hit postseason intensity.

"It was the perfect situation, since you knew they couldn't walk him," said
Torre. "Just the way he was sort of stalking around the dugout, I had a good
feeling he would be able to do it; whether he'd get a hit or not was a different
story. He certainly got up there, had a plan and executed it."

Billingsley allowed one run in the first inning and another in the sixth on a
wild pitch, notching his 10th victory in his seventh try, having last won on
June 14.

The Dodgers also scored on Andre Ethier's 20th home run and an RBI triple by
James Loney. Ethier is the first Dodgers outfielder with back-to-back 20-homer
seasons since Shawn Green in 2001-02.

Source: Ken Gurnick / MLB.com