Friday night, Ramirez makes his return to Fenway Park, as his Dodgers take on the Red Sox for the first game of a three-game series.
Ramirez was one of the most beloved Red Sox players in team history for much of his tenure, known just as much for his silly antics as his unrelenting approach in the batter’s box. He was named to the AL All-Star team in all eight of his seasons in Boston (he was traded to the Dodgers on July 31, 2008) and helped lead the Red Sox to their only two World Series championships since 1918.
But toward the end, "Manny being Manny" became "Manny being a nuisance."
From his dugout altercation with Kevin Youkilis to his far-fetched injury excuses, Ramirez became too much for the Red Sox to handle.
Now, the Dodgers, who have appeared in the last two NL championship series with help from Ramirez, head into Fenway Park for an interleague series featuring two of the top teams in all of baseball. As Phil Gurnee of True Blue LA tells us, the Dodgers are contending for the NL West title once again this year, largely in part to strong pitching and widespread offensive contribution.
In light of Manny’s return to Boston, Gurnee points out that Ramirez is just one of the many Dodgers making contributions in 2010.
NESN.com: Manny Ramirez’s return to Fenway Park is highly anticipated in Boston, but how is Los Angeles viewing it?
P.G.: Can’t speak for all Dodger fans, but the general feeling I get from our blog is that we hope the Boston fans remember the championships he brought to the city, and not the childish way he behaved at the end of his tenure. If Boston fans celebrated Manny being Manny during the good times, then you can’t exactly hate Manny being Manny at the end. He’s been in a huge offensive funk since coming off the DL but has had back-to-back three-hit games.
I wonder if the result of the Lakers-Celtics game will determine how Manny is treated? I’d think Boston fans would be in a celebratory mood on Friday night if the Celtics win, but in a bad mood if the Lakers win. Kind of cool to have this series right after the Lakes-Celtics series has ended. [Note: The question-and-answer session took place before the Lakers triumphed in Game 7.]
NESN.com: What do you think Manny’s presence in L.A. has meant for the other two budding Dodger outfielders, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier?
P.G.: For a time, it seemed that if Manny was not in the lineup, Andre would stop hitting. But all that nonsense was put to rest this year when Andre went on his Triple Crown tear, while Manny was nursing his latest leg injury. It is possible that in 2008 Manny took a lot of the pressure off the young outfielders, but I don’t think that can be quantified. Maybe he taught them to have fun after spending their first few years under the wrathful gaze of Jeff Kent. Manny mostly hangs with his Dominican teammates.
NESN.com: When Ethier was sidelined with an injury, the Dodgers started to play some of their best baseball. Why do you think that was?
P.G.: The team was in the middle of the win streak when Andre went down, but pitching, pitching, pitching drove the Dodgers from last to first while Andre was out. Some dude named John Ely arrived and, from his first start on, showed Dodger pitchers that going six, seven innings and not walking opponents is an option. The whole rotation has been solid since Ely showed up, with everyone throwing quality game after quality game. The starters went deeper, allowing for Joe Torre to use his best bullpen parts instead of trying to get from the fifth inning to the seventh inning with the weaker arms in the bullpen. When a game gets into the eighth, Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathan Broxton form a deadly combo to try to come back against.
NESN.com: Now that Ethier is back, and the offense is healthy, does this Dodgers team have enough starting pitching to come out of a much-improved NL West?
P.G.: Well, we did win three 1-0 games in the just-concluded homestand, beating such aces as Dan Haren, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright along the way. Now that the Giants realize that keeping one of your best hitters in Triple-A is not the best way to win a pennant, it should get very interesting. I’m of the opinion that the Rockies are still the team to beat, but the Padres have done this long enough that it has gone beyond fluky. It should be a great battle the rest of the year, with all four teams taking turns at weakening each other's midsections. If the Dodgers’ current rotation stays healthy, the answer is yes, but we just received word that Chad Billingsley is headed for the DL. Hopefully, it’s just a 15-day stint.
I’d be perfectly happy with Clayton Kershaw, Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Vicente Padilla and Ely, as the first three are as good a threesome as any team has. For some reason, Kuroda does not get much media play, but when healthy, he’s been an above-average pitcher every year of his contract. Everyone should have heard about Kershaw. You can bet the NL West knows about him. Billingsley is an enigma — great arm, All-Star pitcher in 2009, then couldn’t even make the playoff rotation in 2009. He’s had a great May/June until his last start, which might explain why’s he’s on the DL. Padilla should fill the fourth role adequately. Ely has given the rotation a huge boost in the arm, but the question will remain: Can he at least be average for the rest of the year? I don’t know of any team other than the Rays who don’t have a question mark in the fifth spot of the rotation.
Now that the dreaded Ortiz twins have been exorcised from the team, the bullpen is back to the dominating group it was in 2009. Broxton gets all the headlines because he’s the closer, but Kuo has yet to allow a hit to any left-handed hitter this year. Ronald Belisario started slow but is now looking like the excellent setup man he was in 2009.The only downside to the bullpen right now is that George Sherrill has completely lost his way, and they don’t have that second lefty, which was a great weapon last year.
With Billingsley on the DL, this means the Red Sox will get to face the Rule 5 guy, Carlos Monasterios, on Friday, which is not how Dodger fans wanted the series to start. Then again, we just found out we are facing someone who’s making his debut [Felix Doubront], so it seems like a fair matchup.
NESN.com: Jonathan Broxton has been lights out this year, but have Dodger fans forgiven him for the last two NL championship series?
P.G.: We love big John. Some fans still grumble about his heart, but those people are radio talk whiners, not intelligent blog readers. Most fans by now realize they have the most dominant NL closer on the hill in the ninth. Giving up the home run to Matt Stairs in 2008 happens. Walking Stairs in 2009, which allowed Jimmy Rollins to get the game-winning hit, is what most of us were upset about. At times last year, Broxton had trouble on the road. That has not been the case in 2010. We hope he gets another chance in 2010 to show he can handle the NLCS.
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Thanks again to Phil Gurnee of True Blue LA for sharing his Dodgers knowledge.
