Bay finds smooth sailing in 1st playoff appearance

BOSTON (AP) — Things are going pretty well so far in the Bay State.

Ever since Jason Bay came to Boston in a deadline deal for Manny Ramirez, the low-key, un-dreadlocked left fielder has fit right in. Playing in his first pennant race and first postseason, Bay scored in every one of Boston’s first-round wins against the Angels, sliding home with the winning run Monday night as the Red Sox advanced to the AL championship series.

“I can’t imagine that it’ll get more intense than this,” he said while celebrating with teammates he has known only about two months. “But it will.”

Bay spent most of his first five seasons in Pittsburgh, playing for Pirates teams that never finished higher than fourth. So he was the happiest one around when the Red Sox went looking for a way to ditch Ramirez at the trade deadline, eventually working out a three-team deal that sent the disgruntled slugger to the Dodgers and brought Bay to Boston.

The happiest, that is, except for Ramirez.

The first World Series MVP in Red Sox history, Ramirez put up big numbers over 71‚Ñ2 years in a Boston uniform, but also earned the better part of $160 million and precipitated enough clubhouse flareups to leave management wondering if he was more trouble than he was worth.

After years of ill-timed and sometimes suspicious absences from the lineup, the tipping point might have been a July at-bat when, called upon to pinch-hit on a day he expected to be off, he struck out on three pitches from Yankees closer Mariano Rivera without ever taking the bat off his shoulder.

Ramirez got what he wanted: Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein shipped him to the Dodgers in a three-team deal that brought Bay to Boston.

“Jason has had an impressive transition into a new league, a new clubhouse and his first pennant race,” Epstein said Tuesday, a day after the Red Sox earned a chance to play for the AL pennant against the Tampa Bay Rays.