Posted on 07/23/2008 2:44:56 PM PDT by llevrok
Manny Ramirez will not be in the starting lineup for this afternoon's series finale in Seattle. Red Sox manager Terry Francona said Ramirez showed up this morning and said his right knee was sore, an overnight development that the manager said caught him by surprise. The trainers had not communicated any issue to Francona after the game. "He showed up this morning, I wasn't ready for that,'' Francona said. "He said his right knee hurts.'' Francona then joked, "The (expletive) jaywalking, if you do it right, you won't hurt your knee.'' Ramirez told reporters his knee has been bothering him for about a week. "I've just been trying to play it out," he said, while jokingly singing for tips at his locker in the clubhouse, with his I-Pod docked to a speaker and a cup out seeking donations from teammates. "I decided it was time to give it a rest." Asked if he would be ready for the Yankees series, which begins Friday, Ramirez said, "I don't know. I'm day-to-day at this point." In any event, Kevin Youkilis will be hitting in Ramirez's No. 4 hole today, Sean Casey will DH and Jacoby Ellsbury will be in left field against Felix Hernandez, the Venezuelan right-hander who is the Mariners' best pitcher. Francona said he had planned on using Casey as DH, anyway, but had envisioned Ramirez in left and Ellsbury in center. Coco Crisp, 1 for 11 against Hernandez in his career, was not scheduled to play, but now will be in center. Francona elected to keep Jed Lowrie at short instead of Alex Cora, who might have expected to play a day game after a night game.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
No class trash making millions hitting a ball. Watt a contree!
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