BOSTON — When Manny Ramirez was traded, there was much talk about how Ramirez’s absence would affect David Ortiz at the plate.

The thinking was that Ortiz, who batted third, in front of cleanup man Ramirez, would not get any good pitches to hit in any type of run-producing situation. That being the case, more pressure would be on the new cleanup man, whomever he was.

For the last two nights, that cleanup man has been Kevin Youkilis.

And for the last two nights, Youkilis has cleaned up when the Rangers decided to pitch around Ortiz.

On Tuesday night, Texas intentionally walked Ortiz in the bottom of the eighth with a runner at second, two outs and the game tied at 16-16. Youkilis stepped in and clubbed a game-winning three-run homer, his second homer of the game.

Last night, with runners at second and third and one out in the third inning and Boston on top, 2-0, the Rangers again issued an intentional walk to Ortiz. Up stepped Youkilis with the bases filled. He promptly ripped a two-run double inside the third-base bag, igniting a four-run splurge that gave the Red Sox a 6-0 advantage.

Playing it safe

There are times when it doesn’t have to be a pretty play to be a solid defensive play.

That’s what Youkilis, pushed to third base from first base, showed in the second inning last night.

With a runner at third and two outs, Jarrod Saltalamacchia scalded a hard two-hopper right at Youkilis. The second bounce arrived at Youkilis on a short hop. So, because it was going to be a difficult ball to glove cleanly, he basically surrounded the ball, putting his body in position to block it with his chest the way a catcher blocks a ball in the dirt.

The ball hit him on the chest and fell at his feet. Youkilis calmly picked up the ball and easily threw out Saltalamacchia at first, stranding the runner at third.

Caught in the acts

Saltalamacchia, the Rangers’ catcher, made two ugly mistakes defensively in helping Boston score two runs in the second.

With runners at first and third and none out, Jason Bay took off from first base on a 1-and-1 pitch to Jed Lowrie. Bay had a great jump. Lowrie took the pitch for a strike.

Saltalamacchia got out of his crouch, ready to throw to second. He had absolutely no chance to throw out Bay, something he should have seen out of the corner of his eye as the pitch approached the plate.

He made the throw anyway. But he wasn’t squared up to the second-base target and the ball sailed way wide of the bag on the right-field side and bounced into center field.

Youkilis scored the game’s first run from third base and Bay made it to third. He scored an unearned run on Sean Casey’s grounder to second.

skrasner@projo.com