Manny Ramirez homers off Mike Mussina in the fourth inning yesterday. His two-run double in the sixth iced Boston’s win.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

BOSTON — What in the name of Bill James was Grady Joe Girardi Little thinking?

Two out, two on, and first base open in the bottom of the sixth inning, his New York Yankees clinging to a 2-1 lead over the Red Sox, Manny Ramirez coming to the plate, and a tiring Mike Mussina on the mound.

What to do?

You walk Ramirez, of course.

Unless, that is, you are Grady Joe Girardi Little.

“It’s something I thought about,” the manager said. “We talked about it on the bench.”

Following Mussina’s strikeout of the struggling David Ortiz, who’s in the midst of a horrific, and also totally uncharacteristic, 1-for-29 slump in which he’d be hard pressed to get a hit off a good high school pitcher, Girardi went out to the mound to discuss strategy with his 39-year-old starter.

“I wanted to know how he felt physically,” said Girardi, who this year replaced the venerated Joe Torre as skipper of the Bronx Bombers. “I wanted to talk with him about the situation and make sure we were on the same page.”

The book on Manny is that he kills the Yankees. His lifetime average against them is .316. He also had hit seven career homers off Mussina, including a solo blast over The Monster two innings earlier.

“I talked with ‘Moose’ about his comfort level with both hitters,” said Girardi, noting that the highly-selective Kevin Youkilis would be coming to the plate with the bases loaded if Ramirez was walked intentionally.

The fact is that Manny makes every pitcher uncomfortable — particularly in critical situations.

“Obviously, he’s a great hitter,” Girardi said. “It’s a tough matchup.”

Nevertheless, the Yankees decided to pitch to him.

“Especially,” Girardi said, “because of the way ‘Moose’ is able to spot the ball — his ability to nibble, to throw the ball just off the plate. That’s what he’s made his living off of.

“He had just thrown well to Ortiz. We wanted to give him the opportunity to see if he could get Manny to chase a ball outside the strike zone. And, if we got behind [in the count], then we would walk him. But we never got to that point.”

Mussina threw just one pitch to Ramirez — a fastball that Manny lined up the gap in right center, driving in two runs and giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead that they never relinquished, going on to win, 4-3, and even their three-game, weekend series at a game apiece.

“The idea,” said Girardi, “was not to give him a pitch to hit. ‘Moose’ tried to throw him a fastball off the plate, but it drifted back across. It wasn’t the pitch he was trying to make. But that happens sometimes, too.”

Would it have happened if Torre were still the manager? We’ll never know, because this is a different Joe calling the shots now in the Yankees dugout.

“We had a plan,” Mussina said afterward in the New York clubhouse. “It only takes one pitch for it to all apart.

“He asked me who I felt more comfortable with. I said: ‘I don’t feel any more comfortable with ‘Youk’ than I do with Manny, so let’s go after Manny.’ But the last thing I said was: “If I get behind, I’ll walk him.’

“I was trying to go down and away,” Mussina said. “He hadn’t offered at that pitch all night. I thought I might get strike one, but the pitch ran over the middle of the plate, and he did what good hitters do with mistakes.”

As it turned out, it clearly was a mistake to pitch to Manny. But it also was a decision that raised lots of eyebrows at the time.

Girardi had plenty of time to come up with reasons for his clearly suspect strategy — the game was delayed for 2 hours and 11 minutes because of rain in the top of the eighth inning.

He had to know that Manny kills the Yankees.

Ramirez’s homer in the fourth was the 53rd of his career against New York, tying him with Hank Greenberg for third-most ever against the Bronx Bombers. Jimmie Foxx (70) tops the all-time list, followed by Ted Williams, with 62.

His three RBI last night gave Manny 155 against the Yanks, pushing him past Harmon Killebrew and Brooks Robinson into third-most since 1957 against New York. Al Kaline has 157 and Carl Yastrzemski leads the list with 163.

Manny’s clutch hitting led to a much-needed win for the Sox, who had lost five of their last seven games, and had won just one of their previous eight games against the Yankees.

“It was my decision,” Girardi said. “Some are going to work out, some aren’t. You have to live by your decisions.”

And sometimes, as Grady Little could tell Girardi, you can die by them.

jdonalds@projo.com