Torre, Ramirez fail to communicate

LOS ANGELES (AP) — From the day the Los Angeles Dodgers traded for Manny Ramirez, manager Joe Torre said his colorful left fielder wouldn’t be removed for a defensive replacement in the late innings.

But when the ninth inning arrived at Chavez Ravine Monday night and closer Jonathan Broxton had finished his warmup pitches, only eight Dodgers were on the field to defend an 8-4 lead against the Philadelphia Phillies.

No Manny.

“I didn’t know anything about it until Juan Pierre said, ‘He took all his bats and went on in,’ ” Torre said Tuesday during batting practice. “So I said, ‘Well, we’d better get him out here.’ Manny was still getting on me about it today.”

Here’s what happened: Ramirez was forced out at the plate in the eighth, and Torre held his fist out from a distance as a way of congratulating the enigmatic slugger for his single that helped the Dodgers build an insurance run. But Ramirez thought Torre’s gesture meant he was being taken out of the game. So he headed up the tunnel to the clubhouse.

“I was sitting there when Manny was forced at the plate, and then I realized that I didn’t shake Manny’s hand for getting the hit. So he went by me and I put my fist out,” Torre said. “He was probably 8 feet away, and he put his fist out and was starting to come back. I said, ‘No, don’t worry about it,’ ” and he thought I meant, go inside and we’ll pick you up in the ninth.”

Just like Paul Newman and Strother Martin in the 1967 chain-gang epic, “Cool Hand Luke,” Ramirez and Torre had a failure to communicate.

“I just went to the bathroom,” Ramirez said with a chuckle after the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory. “All the guys said, ‘Hey, we play nine in here.’ ”