ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Red Sox slugger Kevin Youkilis has an eight-game hitting streak in AL championship series play. He also has his first two hits off James Shields.
Youkilis was hitless in 17 at-bats when facing Shields before a first-inning double and fourth-inning single against the Tampa Bay Rays starter in Boston’s 2-0 victory Friday night.
“I don’t think about that stuff when I play,” Youkilis said. “That’s more of a flash on the headlines or putting on the ticker when you’re 0-for-somebody. You can’t put that your head. You’ve just got to go out there with the numbers that you’re due. I just told myself to go up there, try to lay off the changeup as much as I can and just try to see the ball.”
Youkilis finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, helping the Red Sox win the series opener. He has three hits in three straight ALCS games.
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FATHER FIGURE: Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has a close relationship with Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez. Manuel managed Ramirez in Cleveland’s minor league system and for one season with the Indians in 2000.
long time. I spent a lot of time with him. I spent a lot of time in the cage with him. I spent a lot of time throwing extra batting practice to him. I spent a lot of time talking to him.
“Manny, he’s fun, he’s different. He’ll do some things sometimes you don’t understand. But if you get to know him, I guarantee you you’ll like him. Manny is tension-free in life.”
Now, Manuel is managing against a streaking Ramirez in the NL championship series.
“I look at Manny in this series like Barry Bonds,” Manuel said. “He’ll make you change your ideas on things at times. He’ll put some pressure on you, especially like in big situations in the game, and he’s got a chance to do something big in the moment and beat you.”
Manuel, a hitting coach before becoming a manager, takes credit for helping Ramirez become one of the most dangerous hitters in the game. But it wasn’t due to any special tips.
“I definitely helped him,” Manuel said. “I had to keep people away from him because everybody knows how to hit and everybody wanted to talk to him and everybody wanted to mess with him. If he went 0-for-4, they want to spread him out, change his stance. The biggest problem was getting people to leave him alone because he could hit from the first time I ever seen him.”
ia’s 8-5 victory.
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TEXAS TWO-STEP: Josh Beckett is bracing for a stiff challenge from the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 2 of the AL championship series Saturday night.
Beckett is undefeated in two ALCS starts for the Red Sox and posted solid numbers against Tampa Bay this year, but the hard-throwing right-hander said the Rays have a difficult lineup.
“Just situationally, you’ve got to make sure that you put yourself into a good situation because they can hit with runners in scoring position,” said Beckett, who went 2-1 with a 2.06 ERA in five starts against the Rays this season.
Scott Kazmir, who grew up in the same part of Texas as Beckett, will get the ball for the Rays. The All-Star lefty was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in four starts against Boston this season and said he isn’t feeling any added pressure ahead of the matchup with Beckett.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any pressure from here on out,” he said. “We’re kind of underdogs, and wasn’t even expected to make it this far. So we’re just having fun.”
Kazmir struggled early in his playoff debut in Game 2 of the division series against the Chicago White Sox, but settled down to work 5 1-3 innings and get the win.
“The main thing for me is to keep the first batter every inning off the base paths,” Kazmir said.
he Red Sox and Florida Marlins. He beat Cleveland twice in the 2007 ALCS and pitched a two-hit shutout for the Marlins against the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the 2003 NLCS.
Coming back from a strained side muscle, Beckett allowed four runs and nine hits and was not involved in the decision in Game 3 of the division series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Asked Friday if he thinks he can be at his best the rest of October, despite the injuries he’s been dealing with, Beckett said: “Yeah, I’m going to be the best I can be.”
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HOME AWAY FROM HOME: The Red Sox not only took the home-field advantage away from Tampa Bay with a 2-0 victory in Game 1 of the AL championship series, history is now on their side for advancing to the World Series.
In the previous 38 ALCS matchups, the winner of the first game has won the series 23 times (62 percent).
“It matters a lot,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “In this series, the fourth win would be more important. We’re not going to downplay a win. At the same time, if we lost, we wouldn’t give up. But any day you show up, it’s certainly a lot more rewarding to win.”
In five of the last eight ALCS, however, the Game 1 loser bounced back to win the series.
s one, come back tomorrow, and I believe our guys will.”
Boston has won Game 1 in each of its last five postseason series.
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RAY OF HOPE: Dodgers manager Joe Torre was impressed the last few years with the young talent on the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays. But even he was surprised at how they were able to make the jump from last place to the ALCS.
“That’s probably a surprise that it happened so quickly,” he said. “They just got a little bit of a roll. They certainly were tested all year. They still had to go out there and fight off Boston all year long.”
While fans in Tampa might disagree that success for the long-suffering franchise came “quickly,” the additions of players like Evan Longoria and Matt Garza this year helped turn the team into a winner.
“They kept adding one factor after another,” Torre said. “Once they started addressing the pitching and once the pitching that they had started growing, you knew it was just a matter of time before they were able to control the game a little bit better.”
Torre managed against Tampa Bay when he was with the Yankees. He said there was no team in the American League, other than Boston, he felt pressure to beat quite like the Rays.
“You have to beat the Red Sox and Tampa,” Torre said. “Tampa because we had our spring training (there), just a lot of needs there.”
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