Red Sox have extra off-time to seek solutions

CLEVELAND -- Tick, tick, tick, tick ...

The alarm clock preparing to buzz the end of Boston's season, or simply a late wakeup call? The Red Sox awoke to a new day Wednesday to find the governor ordering a stay of execution.

Manny needs to tune down on the celebrating ... until there's something to celebrate. (AP)

OK, so in this case the governor was Bud Selig, and Boston avoided elimination for another day thanks to this funky and ludicrous new October schedule that's loaded up the off days so baseball can boost its television ratings by stretching things out to Thanksgiving. Next up on the World Series pregame show: Snowmobile races!

Otherwise, the Red Sox were still in Cleveland, still reported for an afternoon workout at Jacobs Field and still had several problems to solve while spending the day trouble-shooting.

Check that. One blissful member of the Red Sox traveling party didn't have much trouble to shoot.

"If it doesn't happen, who cares? There's always next year," slugger Manny Ramirez said when asked whether Boston can complete another comeback for the ages. "It's not like it's the end of the world or something."

Ah, the latest installment of Manny Being Manny, with our hero as Mad Genius. While most other players would take heat for such an air of indifference, Ramirez obviously is working toward keeping his mates calm, lean and mean.

Besides, you can't judge Manny on these kinds of subjects, anyway. Most conversations with Ramirez should be limited to hitting. Like this:

"Manny, do you like to hit in this park?" someone asked before Wednesday's workout, noting that Jacobs Field is a comfortable place because Ramirez once played here.

"I like hitting everywhere," Ramirez cooed.

With the Sox having grounded into seven double plays over the past three games and leaning way too much on Ramirez and David Ortiz, hitting coach Dave Magadan was particularly popular on the interview circuit Wednesday. Really, with so many problems having sprung up, there were so many places to turn.

And the Red Sox aren't going to get this series back to Boston, and they're certainly not going to win it, unless they figure out solutions to these:

Dustin Pedroia: The little leadoff man may be the least of Boston's problems because he showed signs -- finally -- of breaking out of the doldrums in Game 4. He opened by smashing a first-pitch bouncer right at third baseman Casey Blake on Tuesday, and in the seventh Cleveland second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera made a sensational leaping catch of a Pedroia liner.