Ramirez, Ortiz are a lethal 1-2 punch

By Kevin Baxter

Oct. 8, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Abbott had Costello. Batman had Robin.

And now Manny has Big Papi.

Or is it the other way around?

Well, it probably doesn’t matter. Because when Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are batting back to back in the middle of the Boston Red Sox’s lineup, focusing on one simply creates opportunities for the other.

And when they’re both on? Then you have games like Sunday’s, when they hit consecutive homers, starting the Red Sox to a 9-1 victory over the Angels and a sweep of their American League division series.

“They’re as good a 1-2 punch as there is in baseball,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said.

He should know. In the three-game series, Ortiz and Ramirez were a combined eight for 15 (.533) with four homers, eight runs and seven runs batted in. Talk about a Dynamic Duo: Ramirez and Ortiz alone accounted for nearly one-third of Boston’s hits and more than half of the runs.

As a team, the Red Sox batted .269 in the series. Without Ortiz and Ramirez, however, their average would have been .218.

“Damage control, that’s all you can do with these guys,” said reliever Eric Gagne, who faced both of his new teammates while pitching for the Texas Rangers. “They’re the best combo I’ve ever seen. They’re clutch. They thrive on pressure and that’s what it’s all about.”

Game 1, for example, belonged to Ortiz, with his two-run home run in the third inning turning a 1-0 game into a comfortable victory for Josh Beckett. Two days later, with the Angels walking Ortiz four times, it was Ramirez’s turn, with his three-run ninth-inning blast providing Boston with a walk-off win.

Ortiz struck first again Sunday with a high blast into the old right-field bullpen, giving him a franchise-record 10 postseason homers and 27 RBIs in his last 23 postseason games.

Ramirez followed a few pitches later, lining a shot more than 440 feet to the right of the rock pile in center field, his record 10th division series homer and 22nd in the postseason, tying former New York Yankee Bernie Williams for the most in playoff history.

“They’re so good,” marveled leadoff hitter Dustin Pedroia, who hit only .154 in the series, a slump no one noticed. “It takes a lot of pressure off you when those guys are stepping up like the way they are and playing so good.

“If they didn’t get a good pitch to hit, they didn’t swing. And when they got one, they hit it.”

Indeed. Ramirez and Ortiz swung at 48 pitches combined in the series and missed only nine.

“In the playoffs,” said Ortiz, a .331 postseason hitter with Boston, “whenever you get to see something you can hit, you better not miss it.”

That, however, is what the Red Sox did regarding the postseason last year -- miss it. And Friday’s opener of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park will mark their first appearance there since 2004, when Ortiz hit two dramatic homers to help Boston reach the World Series, where it swept St. Louis to win the city’s first title in 86 years.

“It took us four years to get [back] to this point,” Ortiz said. “You’ve got to get excited and happy about what’s going on. We’ve been playing good. Hopefully the four days off doesn’t affect us.”

The Red Sox won’t know until later this week who they’ll play in the LCS, but Ramirez suggested it may not matter. Not if he and Ortiz keep connecting.

“This team is better,” he said when asked to compare the current Red Sox to the World Series team of 2004. “We’ve got better pitching. Our relievers are great.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

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Power pack

Manny Ramirez tied Bernie Williams for most career home runs in playoffs.

22Bernie Williams (N.Y. Yankees)

22Manny Ramirez (Cleveland-Boston)

18Mickey Mantle (N.Y. Yankees)

18 Reggie Jackson (Oakland, N.Y. Yankees, California)

17Derek Jeter (N.Y. Yankees)

17Jim Thome (Cleveland)

15Babe Ruth (N.Y. Yankees)

14David Justice (Atlanta, Cleveland, N.Y. Yankees, Oakland)