Boston Red Sox defeat Chicago White Sox, 6-5

CHICAGO -- As Manny Ramirez sat on a couch in the visiting clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field yesterday afternoon, absorbed in whatever is stored in his iPod, he was besieged by playful mockery.

Kevin Millar limped back and forth, clutching his right hamstring.

The diligent worker, Trot Nixon, paused to shout across the room: ''Manny, go get your hamstrings worked on."

Ramirez smiled and bopped about, preparing to bat cleanup and play left field, a day after taking ...

CHICAGO -- Up in the air, along with the baseball, hung a 50-game errorless streak for Joe Crede. There was one out in the ninth inning of a tie game as Crede, the White Sox' accountable third baseman, drifted toward the stands, stalking the night for a Manny Ramirez pop fly and a personal milestone. He drifted to the wall, backpedaled toward the field, reached up, and fumbled.

Any doubt about what happened next?

It didn't take long, the next pitch, in fact, for the ...

CHICAGO -- Alone with his thoughts? Hardly. After White Sox third baseman Joe Crede dropped Manny Ramirez's pop fly near the third base railing in the ninth inning last night, you could have asked any of the 36,784 fans in U.S. Cellular Field, the occupants of both dugouts, and anyone listening or watching the game on radio and television, and chances are they could have told you what flashed across Crede's mind in that moment.

''In the back of my head, I'm thinking, 'O...