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Milton Bradley didn't get the memo explaining that when a game starts at 11:06 a.m., the sun field at Fenway Park is left, not right. Or so it seemed in Boston's five-run fourth inning Monday, the least potent five-run rally here in recent memory. The Texas Rangers left fielder capped his team's weekend buffoonery on David Ortiz's gentle fly ball to the warning track, just in front of the AL East standings. His teammates were starting to trot off the field, expecting Bradley to achieve the inning's elusive third out, when all of a sudden Bradley ducked and covered as if someone had tossed a hand grenade to him. The ball bounced once and tapped The Wall, the inning's fifth run scored, Ortiz ended up at second base, and the Red Sox' four-game series sweep was complete. There was zero chance thatthe Rangers would mount the sort of comeback they had fueled for the Red Sox 20 hours earlier. Boston's first four runs came via a walk, a balk, Jed Lowrie's bunt pop-up for a single, Julio Lugo's bouncer up the middle, a throwing error by second baseman Ian Kinsler, an infield hit and Dustin Pedroia's two-run double to the triangle. It all set the stage for Ortiz's puff of smoke to Bradley. The beer lines grew longer, Clay Buchholz got looser and the Rangers took their hacks in the fifth. Buchholz left after six shutout innings, leaving David Aardsma, Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen to get in their workouts and preserve his first Fenway win since the no-hitter against Baltimore last September. Buchholz, hammered in his last outing against the Yankees in the Bronx, struggling to command his full repertoire of pitches, found a certain rhythm in his exercise against Texas. "I felt a lot more comfortable with people on base,'' he said. "I don't know what it was." (Insert Rangers punch line here.) "After the first inning I felt like I was in synch,'' Buchholz said. "I was throwing strikes down in the zone. That's an important part of my game. It's a big step forward." "He threw all his pitches,'' Terry Francona said. "He's got four pitches and if he can throw them at any time, in any count, against any hitter, lefty or righty, it adds another 20 feet to his fastball." "It felt a lot different going in there having four pitches instead of two,'' Buchholz said. Ron Washington should've known his club's final day in Boston this season would be brutal when Kason Gabbard had to leave after two innings. Gabbard stumbled throwing a 2-0 pitch to Kevin Youkilis to lead off the second and wrenched his back.

Saturday night they were down 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth and won. To prove how easy it was, the Red Sox took a 5-2 deficit into the bottom of the eighth Sunday and scored four times against a ballclub clearly suffering from The Curse of George W. Bush. Watching the Rangers explore new avenues for blowing ball games this weekend has had some entertainment value, particularly for connoisseurs of dark comedy. But Sunday's bottom of the eighth inning should go down as one of the shoddiest exhibitions of baseball incompetence seen on any big-league diamond. Dustin Pedroia, granted a day off, pinch-hit in the eighth and lined a double to the gap in right-center, scoring David Ortiz ? from first, no less ? with the tying run. Pedroia then took third when center fielder Josh Hamilton heaved the ball to his imaginary friend floating around somewhere west of second base.Pedroia, who scored the winning run on Sean Casey's bases-loaded walk, had to cut short his day off because Manny Ramirez got himself ejected in the bottom of the second, putting Joe Thurston into the cleanup spot. Julio Lugo ended up playing left field in the ninth. Ortiz had reached on a ground ball to second baseman Ian Kinsler in short right field, on which Jed Lowrie scored from second base when umpire Gary Darling's call sent Texas first baseman Ben Broussard into a catatonic state. "A lot of crazy things happen in this ballpark,'' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It's part that and part having good players." "Any time you can come back it brings you together,'' Casey said. "It's exciting. There's a sense of unity.'' As Casey said, the Red Sox' style is conducive to comebacks. They wear down pitchers like Texas' C.J. Wilson, the loser who faced five batters and retired zero. "We just don't give away at bats,'' Casey said. "I knew if I could keep us in the game there might be a chance that we could come back and win,'' said Tim Wakefield, who trudged off in the middle of the eighth with a three-run deficit and first loss of 2008 looming. As for the Rangers ? well, a cynic might suggest that fans who have already purchased tickets to see the Texas Rangers play anywhere at any time this season should consider demanding a refund. After all, truth in advertising demands satisfaction. And those folks bought tickets believing they would be seeing two Major League Baseball teams on the same diamond. Ortiz beats out infield hits only slightly more often than men score from second on them. "I hesitated at third,'' Lowrie said. "I thought I saw (coach) DeMarlo Hale hesitate. Then once I got around third I just kept going. I didn't see what happened at all." "If Broussard realized that they called David safe and there is a runner at second he has to come back to the plate,'' Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "We'd have blown that guy up at home.'' Ortiz scores from first on a double about as often as outfielders flip baseballs into the infield with total disregard as to where they might land. "I thought that I might as well stop at second, then I looked up and saw the ball just bouncing around,'' Pedroia said. "I figured I'm faster than a rolling ball. Maybe not by much.'' From the moment Kinsler began the game with a home run off Wakefield, this clearly seemed like the silver lining Texas would take from their long weekend here. Whatever Ramirez said to home plate umpire Paul Emmel in the bottom of the second, its echo reverberated off The Wall in the bottom of the fifth, tweaking 37,480 frustrated souls. Ramirez took a called third strike to open the bottom of the second ? or took a fastball low and away for ball 2. Emmel took the former position; Ramirez took the latter. Emmel waved Ramirez to the dugout; Ramirez paused after a half step, barked something that apparently rankled Emmel, who immediately ordered him off the premises. Ramirez's absence went fairly unnoticed until the bottom of the fifth. Trailing 2-0, the Red Sox had runners on second and third with one out against Rangers right-hander Kevin Millwood (the apparent ace of a motley crew). For reasons defying logic, Washington called a conference on the mound as Ortiz stepped up, as if the choice couldn't have been much clearer: Pitch to Ortiz or walk Ortiz and pitch to Thurston, Ramirez's replacement in left field. Sagely, Washington walked Ortiz. Thurston tapped an inconsequential ground ball to shortstop, ending the inning. Moments later, Milton Bradley slammed a three-run homer off Wakefield, and Ramirez's absence seemed that much more conspicuous. "He gave me a big hug when I came in,'' Pedroia said. "But he gives me a hug every day.'' In his first month with Boston, Casey marvels at the team's resilience. "I've been on teams that when you get down it's like, 'OK, we lost,''' he said. Then there are teams that when they are up by three in the eighth inning it's like, "OK, we lost." "It's obvious. We're not afraid of the Boston Red Sox,'' Washington said. "We just got to learn how to put ball games away.'' They have seen the enemy and will be careful not to nick him while shaving this morning.

There are very sound reasons why baseball people insist that judging a club, or an individual player, by what happens in April does nothing but guarantee a large measure of rhetorical back-tracking in June, July and August. April is the shakedown cruise, as David Ortiz would readily attest. Lots of great ballplayers spend the season's first few weeks easing into the grind. Lots of not-so great ballplayers have conjured grand delusions on chilly evenings when the crowd in the park is as interested in what is happening at the Garden as what is happening in front of them. Of course, there are also established ballplayers who use April as a prologue to historic runs, as Manny Ramirez might attest if he were of a mind to think in such exotic terms. It isn't just that Ramirez is hitting .342 through 19 games, or has six homers and 20 runs batted in (though when extrapolating those numbers over a season, 48 homers and 160 RBIs is worth pausing to consider.) He also has sent a warning to the American League that, in the first option year of his considerable contract, lots of those hits and RBIs are going to come when they can do the Red Sox the most good. Consider, for instance, his only hit Saturday night, which came with the game tied, one out in the eighth, and would be landing in a Dracut driveway right about now if the left-field light tower hadn't gotten in the way. A moment earlier, David Ortiz singled in the game's tying run, giving Ramirez an opportunity to line Joaquin Benoit's 0-1 offering high and deep. Before Jacoby Ellsbury doubled with one out in the eighth, the only heat generated by the crowd came in the middle of the inning, as the message boards reported the Bruins' score (5-4, Boston over Montreal to tie their series at 3-3, for the uninitiated). "When they flashed the Bruins' score on the board I knew there'd be a lot of electricity in the ballpark,'' Jonathan Papelbon said. "Boston is a city of champions. I knew something magical was going to happen.'' Papelbon also offered Benoit a nugget of solace. "When you have to pitch to David, and know Manny's coming up next, it's what keeps us in the ball game at all times,'' he said. "I thought it was down,'' Rangers manager Ron Washington said of Benoit's 0-1 pitch. "He doesn't give a darn where it's at. He did what he had to do and he lifted it over the fence. And it wasn't just Boston's Fenway Wall that it went over because if it was any other ballpark I think it was gone, too.'' Ramirez has 14 hits in his last 30 at bats and is hitting .425 (17-for-40) since starting the year at .242. He leads the AL with nine go-ahead RBIs and leads the majors with six game-winning RBIs. "It's a pretty swing, isn't it,'' Terry Francona said of Ramirez's sixth homer. "We didn't have the lead for very long but it was long enough and it was at the right time.'' Before the bottom of the eighth unfolded, Saturday night's Exhibit A for taking distinguished April performances in stride came in the person of Jason Jennings, a right-handed pitcher for the Rangers who hasn't had more than a nodding acquaintanceship with big-league success since peaking in 2002 as the National League Rookie of the Year. He followed that award-winning 16-8 campaign (after going 4-1 in 2001) with a collective 40-62, arriving for work at Fenway with no wins and three losses in three starts this season. Those three starts produced a total of just 14-1/3 innings, littered with 19 hits, 14 earned runs and 10 walks. So, fresh off their Friday night bashing, how did the Red Sox fare against Saturday night's designated punching bag? Jennings subdued them without so much as a nervous twitch as his 85-mph fastballs floated in untouched. As for Jon Lester, the Red Sox lefty did stay in the strike zone more effectively than he did in his first three starts. Unfortunately, he also allowed 10 hits over 6-1/3 innings, trailing just 3-2 when he left in the seventh mostly because the Rangers are among the American League's dregs when it comes to run production. Texas tops the American League with 146 runners left on base in 18 games, padding their healthy lead with 13 LOBs on Saturday night. If such offensive slovenliness endures, it is guaranteed to keep the Rangers wholly irrelevant in the American League. But, as Lester said, he did have a healthy margin for error, even if it didn't show up until he was back in the clubhouse. "It helps when you have Manny and David in the lineup,'' he said.

If Luis Mendoza left work Friday night having learned nothing, he should find another career. Seldom are big-league lessons driven harder or more succinctly than the one directed at the 24-year-old Texas Rangers right-hander in the third inning of his first visit to Fenway Park. With two out and none on, Red Sox rookie Jed Lowrie sliced a double into the left-field corner, for which Mendoza could be granted a mulligan, seeing that it was Boston's first hit. But when Jacoby Ellsbury walked on four pitches and Dustin Pedroia walked on five, Mendoza was in dire need of an authority figure taking a rolled up newspaper and slapping him across the snout. Rangers pitching coach Mark Connor did visit Mendoza after Pedroia walked, without a newspaper but, presumably, with a gruff command along the lines of, "Don't do that!" As Connor stomped back to the dugout, David Ortiz strode to home plate. Now Mendoza may have noticed that Ortiz has endured the worst three weeks of his career to open the season, but if that lulled him into believing he could get away with two, two-out walks to load the bases, he is guilty of first-degree silliness as well as aggravated sloppy pitching. Three-week batting average aside, Ortiz is a baseball dramatist, and as such could not have better scripted his first Fenway memory of 2008. Mendoza threw Ortiz one pitch, a tailing fastball that the big guy sliced high and deep into The Wall seats for his eighth career grand slam. No one at Fenway not standing on the pitchers mound could have been particularly stunned or amazed as Ortiz sauntered around the bases, soaking in the roaring ovation. Returning to the dugout, Ortiz got the mock silent treatment for a few seconds before being mobbed by his pals, who have suffered along with him through a dismal month. An inning later, Mendoza came completely unhinged and was through for the evening. His line: three-plus innings, seven earned runs, five hits, two strikes, three walks, two of them coming at the worst possible time. "I don't think he was trying to pitch around guys,'' Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Those two guys that ended up getting on the bag, at least if they get on the bag you want them to hit their way. I think the walk to Ellsbury killed us right there. "The pitch that Ortiz hit was supposed to be a sinker down and away and it ended up staying in the middle of the plate. Even though that big boy is struggling, he's still dangerous." Rangers reliever Dustin Nippert didn't learn much from Mendoza's foibles. In the eighth, with the score 9-3, two outs and two on, rather than pitch around Ortiz to work against Joe Thurston (who replaced Ramirez when the game was out of hand) he served up an RBI single. "First of all, he gives us the first lift with the opposite field home run which, when you see guys drive the ball to the opposite field, that's good,'' Terry Francona said. "He stayed with another ball and hit the line drive to right. "It's a weird science. If you could put it in a bottle everybody would hit .300." Ortiz's seventh career grand slam at Fenway (his first came with the Twins) ties him with Ted Williams and Jim Rice for the most ever at the old yard. It was just his second homer, and second extra-base hit of the season, but there was one more sure sign that Ortiz's power is returning. In the bottom of the fourth Ortiz managed to talk himself to first base, and how often does any slugger manage that feat? Moments after Pedroia whacked a two-run homer over The Wall, Rangers reliever Joshua Rupe clipped Ortiz in the right leg with a pitch. Meals called nothing until Ortiz pointed to where the pitch hit him, prompting Meals to send him on his way to first. Like Francona says, it's a weird science.

One sure sign that the universe remains fickle to both American League East superpowers, not to mention the 37,461 souls fervently anticipating a memorable moment of hardball drama early Saturday evening: There were two outs, two on and the Red Sox holding a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth as Jonathan Papelbon ran in from the bullpen to face Yankees cleanup man Alex Rodriguez. Before Papelbon could finish warming up, the skies opened, the rain poured and the grounds crew hauled out the tarp. An hour later, the grounds crew pulled back the tarp and began manicuring the infield. Five minutes after that, the grounds crew pulled the tarp back across the infield just before the skies reopened. The masses groaned; beyond wondering if the beer taps would stay open much longer, they could brood over whether Papelbon would return to the mound whenever play resumed. At 8:32 p.m., Papelbon finished warming up for the third time and, at 8:33, Rodriguez swung through a 96-mph fastball and fouled it back. At 8:34, the 8,000 or so still rattling around the yard roared as Rodriguez struck out on another 96-mph fastball. Josh Beckett would keep his first win of 2008. Papelbon, fanning three of the four batters he faced, would earn his fourth save. The diehards went home happy, the Red Sox went home happy, even the reporters went home a little less grumpy after devouring 20 free pizzas in less than 15 minutes to cap the 2:11 rain delay. As others ate, drank and waited, Papelbon kept moving, knowing that if he cooled down his day would be over. "I think I might have sat down for five minutes,'' Papelbon said, acknowledging that there was discussion among manager Terry Francona, pitching coach John Farrell and the training staff as to whether he should warm up three times, then go out and get four outs, over a 2-1/2-hour span. "Everything was going to go according to how Pap felt,'' Francona said. "He didn't sit, he kept busy, he was on the exercise bike a lot. And I gave him a pretty good lecture." If Papelbon injured himself in pursuit of win No. 6, in game No. 12, thus putting the next 150 games in jeopardy, no one needed to tell Francona that he would join Grady Little as a New England baseball pariah. "It's a long year and that's tough duty,'' Francona said. "I was already playing and it was hard enough for me (to stay ready),'' catcher Jason Varitek said. "We all tip our caps to him.'' "I definitely had to stay in my right mindset through the rain delay,'' Papelbon said. "I never let it go. I stayed focused the whole entire time. "I feel like I was just doing my part for the ballclub. We needed this one." If an April loss can count as disheartening, this one would've. Beckett worked 6-2/3 strong innings. His pitch count through five was so low that it seemed plausible he could go deeper. "His pitch count was so low, to do that against that lineup, I don't care if it's April or not, that's impressive,'' Francona said. Manny Ramirez looked like he may be emerging from his traditional slow start. In the fourth, he hammered a high line drive off the Volvo sign in left-center field with the wind blowing in. In his next at bat, he lined a two-out double to right, scored on Kevin Youkilis' single, and thus had a say in all four runs. The Red Sox can only hope that Ramirez stays hot, considering the malaise that continues haunting its lineup. One sure sign of a ballclub that is misfiring on about three cylinders: Through two innings Saturday, the Red Sox had four hits, zero runs and zero men left on base. The four hits were negated by two double plays and a baserunning gaffe by Varitek, who lined a two-out drive that Yankees right fielder Bobby Abreu trapped on a short hop. Varitek chugged toward second, Abreu threw to shortstop Alberto Gonzalez, who only had to avoid a fainting spell to record the putout. With Saturday's four runs, the Red Sox still languish in 10th place in runs scored in the American League at 47. David Ortiz took another 0-for and is batting .070 with three hits in 43 at bats. For those still not convinced that Ortiz is enduring the most maddening struggle of his career, he stepped up in the bottom of the sixth with runners on second and third and one out. Typically, even with Ramirez on deck, Yankees manager Joe Girardi would've at least considered the option of walking Ortiz guy. This time, Girardi didn't blink. Ortiz fanned on four pitches, his 10th strikeout in 42 at bats. Ramirez's two-run double diverted attention from Ortiz's continuing nightmare, which now may furrow even a reasonable observer's brow. Francona said he might give Ortiz a day off to collect his thoughts. He and Papelbon should both spend tonight with their feet up, watching the game and remembering that April baseball is only a prelude.