Manny Ramirez finally airs it out in Dodgers’ 5-4 victory at Colorado
Reporting from Denver -- The altitude did not get to Manny Ramirez. The power drought apparently did.
Ramirez hit his first home run in six weeks Friday night, circled the bases with a wide grin, then excused himself when he returned to the dugout. He went to get some oxygen, then came back to the bench and pretended to breathe deep, the way Russell Martin told the story.
“He’s the best,” Martin said.
Ramirez can make his teammates laugh, but the Dodgers can only hope he still can light up the scoreboard. That he hit the game-winning home run in a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies — a two-run shot to right-center field — served as a sobering reminder that he has not gone deep too often this season.
The home run was the 549th of his career, breaking a tie with Mike Schmidt for 14th on the all-time list. The home run was his third this season, not exactly what the Dodgers had in mind by Memorial Day weekend.
“I think he’s going to hit a number of home runs,” Manager Joe Torre said. “Is he going to hit 30? No. I think he’ll hit 20.”
For Ramirez, that usually covers half a season.
“He’s going to be 38 years old,” Torre said.
His birthday is Sunday.
He is batting .216 in the 17 games since the Dodgers activated him from the disabled list. The home run Friday was his first extra-base hit in 24 at-bats.
He is batting .304, and he has more walks than strikeouts, but his .467 slugging percentage is a career low. Casey Blake’s slugging percentage is .487.
Matt Kemp, who hit his team-leading 10th home run, said Ramirez would be just fine.
“He’s not struggling,” Kemp said. “He just can’t get the hits. He works hard every day. He lives in the cage. He’s one of the hardest-working dudes.
“It always comes back.”
The Dodgers sure did on Friday. With rookie Carlos Monasterios making his second career start, they spotted Colorado a 4-0 lead.
The Dodgers responded with their biggest comeback victory this season, with Kemp homering in the fifth and the club batting around in a four-run sixth.
“It kind of reminded me of our team last year, coming back from being down,” Kemp said. “That’s what we need.”
The power ‘pen took it from there. Of the final 10 outs, eight were strikeouts — two apiece by Ramon Troncoso, Hong-Chih Kuo, Ronald Belisario and Jonathan Broxton.
Broxton earned his 12th save in 14 chances, surviving a ninth inning in which he hit a batter and issued an intentional walk. That left his season ratio of strikeouts to walks at 32 to three.
If the Dodgers are concerned about Ramirez, they aren’t showing it. In his defense, he is batting .444 with runners in scoring position.
“It’s not about power. It’s about production,” Martin said. “As long as he’s driving runs in, I couldn’t care less if he’s hitting the ball out of the park.”
Torre took his comfort in the fact that Ramirez’s home run was a line drive to the opposite field.
“As long as he hits them on the nose, that’s all I really care about,” Torre said. “The home runs will come.”
The home run Friday was the first Ramirez ever had hit at Coors Field, a trivia nugget that left Torre momentarily speechless.
“Good,” Torre finally said. “I hope he hits another one.”
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