Orange County Register

Manny Ramirez

No one benefitted more from the dysfunctional relationship between Manny Ramirez and the Boston Red Sox than David Ortiz. But even Big Papi had to admit “both sides had to make a move.”

“It was too much at the time,” Ortiz said of the July divorce that sent Ramirez off to Los Angeles.

Trading Ramirez has made the Red Sox a different team. But how different?

“Well, we’re a different team just by the questions you guys are asking,” veteran third baseman Mike Lowell said to that line of query. “Before every question revolved around Manny. There are more baseball questions now and less distraction questions.”

In baseball terms, Lowell called Ramirez “a surefire Hall of Famer” who changed the equation for every pitcher facing the Red Sox.

Heading into this series, the Angels have said all the right things about the Red Sox still being a “formidable” offensive team (Game 1 starter John Lackey’s chosen adjective). Leave it to Angels outfielder Torii Hunter to give a more honest assessment of what Ramirez’s relocation does to the challenge of facing the Red Sox.

“If you put Manny in our lineup, we’d be better. If you took him away, we wouldn’t be as good,” Hunter said. “That’s just the way it is. Manny is Manny. He went to the Dodgers and made them better. Take him away and they probably don’t make the playoffs.

“When you take Manny out of the Red Sox lineup, it’s weaker. But they’ve still got a guy named Jason Bay. You make a mistake, he’ll make you pay. … But not too many guys are like Manny. You can’t take the place of Manny.”

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