Ramirez cares enough to help the Red Sox win

BOSTON -- “Who cares?” Manny Ramirez said after the Red Sox fell into a three-games-to-one hole in the American League Championship Series. “If it doesn’t happen, there’s always next year.”

Next year will have to wait for the Red Sox, thanks in part to Ramirez, who, despite his sometimes goofy antics and off-the-wall statements, actually does care.

Before every home game, the Boston left fielder spends time fielding balls off Fenway Park’s Green Monster and throwing to second and third base, and that practice paid off in the fifth inning Sunday night, when Ramirez saved a run at a critical point of the Red Sox’s series-clinching 11-2 win over the Indians.

With Cleveland trailing, 3-1, in the fifth, the speedy Kenny Lofton opened the inning with a drive off the left-field wall. Ramirez fielded the ball with his bare hand and fired a one-hop throw to second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who applied the tag on Lofton for the out.

Franklin Gutierrez followed with a single that would have scored Lofton from second, took third on Casey Blake’s single to right and scored on Grady Sizemore’s sacrifice fly. But when Asdrubal Cabrera struck out to end the inning, the Indians were left with one run and a 3-2 deficit instead of two runs and a 3-3 tie.

Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett earned series Most Valuable Player honors after going 2-0 with a 1.93 earned-run average in two starts against the Indians, striking out 18 and walking one in 14 innings. . . . Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis tied a league championship series record with 14 hits and set an ALCS record with 10 runs. . . . Cleveland slugger Travis Hafner ended an 0-for-16 skid that included 10 strikeouts with a double in the fourth inning Sunday night, but hit only .148 with 12 strikeouts in the series. . . . Indians starter Jake Westbrook survived a rocky start, in which he gave up three runs and seven hits in the first three innings, to blank the Red Sox over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com