HAT TRICK:

It’s Manny to the rescue -- Blast saves Schilling, Sox (Jeff Horrigan, April 26, 2006, Boston Herald)

Minutes after Curt Schilling squandered a one-run lead by heading back to the mound despite an already-high pitch count, Manny Ramirez swooped in and made everything right again by slamming a three-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning to send the Red Sox to an 8-6 victory over the Indians.

Ramirez went 3-for-4 against his former team and had an adventurous night on the basepaths before he snatched it back with his third homer of the season and the 438th of his career. The opposite-field swat, which tied Ramirez with Andre Dawson for 32nd on the all-time list, sent the Sox to their sixth straight win at Jacobs Field since the start of the 2002 season. It also improved Ramirez to .355 lifetime against the team he played for from 1993-2000.

“I don’t know why people worry about Manny not hitting,” said David Ortiz, who was intentionally walked immediately prior to the homer. “He’s going to hit. He’s always been a hitter. In this day, people look at who’s hot and who’s not, which is the right thing to do. He’s coming back. Then what are they going to do?”