Dan Johnson hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run ninth, and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for their first win of the season hours after Manny Ramirez retired, beating the Chicago White Sox 9-7 Friday night.
The dramatic comeback ended a wild day in which Ramirez decided to call it quits rather than face a 100-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy for the second time.
The Rays appeared to be on their way to another loss after dropping their first six games, but that changed in a hurry in the ninth.
Trailing 7-4, pinch-hitter Elliot Johnson singled off Matt Thornton (0-1) leading off with a single and scored from second with one out when Alexei Ramirez threw wildly to first after fielding Sam Fuld’s grounder to short. Juan Pierre then dropped Johnny Damon’s fly to left, putting runners on first and second, before B.J. Upton delivered an RBI single to left to make it a one-run game.
Dan Johnson then drove the first pitch out to right to make it 9-7.
After Casey Kotchman flew to center, John Jaso singled. Will Ohman then retired Ben Zobrist on a fly to end the rally.
That made a winner out of Adam Russell (1-0). Farnsworth pitched the ninth for his first save.
Thornton, meanwhile, continues to struggle in the early going and blew his second save in as many chances.
His meltdown spoiled a big day for Gordon Beckham and Mark Teahen, who each had three hits and a homer, and denied John Danks his first win. Alexei Ramirez went deep off James Shields, and the White Sox looked like they were going to win their third straight without slugger Adam Dunn, who’s recovering from an appendectomy.
Instead, the Rays staged a dramatic rally. Even so, the big news came before the game.
Manager Joe Maddon expected to have Manny Ramirez back in the cleanup spot after he had left the team earlier in the week to tend to what was called a personal matter.
Instead, they were saying goodbye to one of the most accomplished and controversial sluggers the game has seen, someone they were just getting to know. The 12-time All-Star agreed to a $2 million, one-year contract with the defending AL East champions in the offseason, hoping to re-establish himself as an elite hitter, but that didn’t happen.
Ramirez was suspended for 50 games for violating the drug policy in 2009, when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ramirez’s retirement is just another blow for a team off to its worst start. The Rays lost several players in the offseason including Carl Crawford and are without star third baseman Evan Longoria, who’s on the DL.
Danks allowed four runs and six hits while walking four. He left leading 5-3 after Tampa Bay loaded the bases with none out in the seventh.
Jesse Crain came on to face Damon, who had homered earlier, and got him to ground into a force that made it a one-run game. Upton then struck out and Johnson lined to center to end the rally.
Crain retired the side in the eighth before Thornton coughed it up.
Shields, meanwhile, had a rough time against the White Sox.
He allowed five runs and eight hits and was lifted with none out in the seventh after he hit Brent Morel in the left wrist and a bunting Juan Pierre reached on an error by Johnson at first.
Joel Peralta came on and tagged out Morel trying to score on a pitch that got by catcher Kelly Shoppach, who immediately left the game with a sore right knee and was replaced by Jaso.
Shields quickly fell into a hole when Beckham drove a belt-high pitch out to left with one out in the first to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.
The White Sox got two more with one out in the third on back-to-back doubles by Beckham and Alex Rios and a single off the left-field wall by Paul Konerko, giving him an RBI in each of the first seven games and extending his franchise record.
Tampa Bay’s Sean Rodriguez tripled in a run in the fourth before Teahen answered with a solo shot in the bottom half, but the Rays weren’t finished.
They scored two in the sixth on a solo homer by Damon with one out and an RBI bunt single down the first base line by Rodriguez after Upton walked and Johnson singled. Danks then struck out Shoppach and Zobrist to end the rally, and Ramirez drove one out to left in the bottom half to make it 5-3.
NOTES: The Rays recalled Kotchman to take Ramirez’s spot on the roster. … Chicago’s Jake Peavy, on the 15-day disabled list with tendinitis in his right shoulder, allowed two unearned runs and five hits in 3 2-3 innings for Double-A Birmingham at Montgomery. He threw 71 pitches, 43 for strikes.

The Tampa Bay Rays keep adding to the worst start in franchise history, but insist they’re not overly concerned.

Given their recent matchups when facing Edwin Jackson(notes), the Rays might have a difficult time earning their first win of the season and spoiling the Chicago White Sox’s home opener Thursday.

Tampa Bay has batted a miserable .136 and been outscored 22-7 during its 0-5 start. The Rays haven’t managed more than five hits in any game and have been held to one run in four contests.

One of those lowly performances was Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the visiting Los Angeles Angels. B.J. Upton(notes) hit his second homer in as many games, and manager Joe Maddon held Manny Ramirez(notes) out of the lineup after he started the season 1 for 16.

“How many games have we’ve played? We’ve got plenty of time,” said Ramirez, who will miss Thursday’s contest against his former team for personal reasons.

Without Ramirez, the Rays are hoping to bounce back at U.S. Cellular Field, where they had a combined 22 runs and 24 hits while winning the final two of a three-game series last April.

Tampa Bay, though, is scheduled to face Jackson (1-0, 3.00 ERA), who became the third pitcher to no-hit the Rays in less than a year on June 25 while with Arizona. The right-hander, who played for Tampa Bay from 2006-08, held on for a 1-0 victory despite walking eight batters and throwing 149 pitches – the most in a nine-inning game in five seasons.

In his only other previous matchup against Tampa Bay in 2009, Jackson allowed three runs and six hits over eight innings in a 5-3 win for Detroit.

Jackson enters this game after yielding three runs and striking out seven in an 8-3 win at Cleveland on Saturday. The White Sox (3-2) seemed to give him plenty of support after batting .314 and scoring 40 runs in their first five games.

They had 18 hits during Wednesday’s 10-7 win in 12 innings in Kansas City after slugger Adam Dunn(notes) underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday night. The designated hitter, who homered in his White Sox debut, is expected to miss at least five games.

Carlos Quentin(notes) had a go-ahead two-out double in the ninth inning before the Royals tied it, then hit another double to open the 12th. Quentin also had his second home run of the season during a four-hit afternoon.

The White Sox might not need Quentin’s or Dunn’s help against David Price(notes) (0-1, 5.14), who is 0-3 with a 5.00 ERA in three career matchups with Chicago. The left-hander struck out seven in Friday’s season opener against Baltimore, but allowed four runs over seven innings in a 4-1 defeat.

“I felt good. But when you’re going against another team’s No. 1 and give up four runs, you’re going to lose,” said Price, who was 19-6 with a 2.72 ERA and finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2010. “I’ve got to get better.”

After losing six of eight matchups with the White Sox in 2009, the Rays claimed last season’s series by a 4-3 margin.