ALBUQUERQUE — The cheers were for Manny Ramirez to start the baseball game.

The cheers were for the rest of the Albuquerque Isotopes to finish it.

Late Wednesday, the Isotopes and Nashville battled for 15 innings before the Sounds prevailed 8-3 in a Pacific Coast League game in front of what was left of a crowd of 13,076 at Isotopes Park.

With the rehabbing Ramirez long gone, the Isotopes were trying to win for the ninth time in the past 11 games without him.

Ramirez was brought to Albuquerque for a three-game rehab to see some pitches, and that's mostly what the Los Angeles Dodgers star outfielder did in his second Isotopes game.

But he played just four innings for the second straight game and then continued his self-imposed vacation.

Ramirez went to bat twice, walking on four pitches in the first inning and grounding out to short for the final out in the third inning. He remained hitless for Albuquerque, the top minor league team for the Dodgers, after he was 0-for-2 when he made his Isotopes debut on Tuesday.

That didn't seem to phase him much Wednesday, after the team was forced indoors during batting practice due to a rain storm.

"I'm fine. I'm good. I enjoy my life. I'm on vacation. I love it," Ramirez said.

The slugger, who has 527 homers over a 16-year career, was suspended for 50 games for violating baseball's drug rules. He's eligible to return to the Dodgers on July 3, but will first pay a visit to Class-A

Inland Empire before he's back in the bigs, according to Dodgers manager Joe Torre.

So instead of Disneyland, the Bahamas or even Las Vegas, Nev., Ramirez came to Albuquerque.

For the second straight game, he was warmly welcomed by the large crowd, but the cheers were muted largely because of a lingering thunderstorm.

With flashbulbs burning, Ramirez saw four straight balls from Nashville pitcher Tim Dillard, who kept the Isotopes hitless through 5 2/3 innings.

The walk drew the ire of the fans, who booed loudly after each pitch.

Ramirez moved to second on Chin-Lung Hu's sacrifice bunt, but was stranded. He was one of three Isotopes to reach base against Dillard before Hu broke up the no-hit bid with a run-scoring single to right with two outs in the sixth.

Juan Gonzales, walked in the second, but was erased on a double play.

Jason Repko, who replaced Ramirez after the fourth, also walked, then stole second and scored on Hu's single. Hu had another run-scoring single in the eighth, and the Isotopes tied the game at 3 in the ninth.

In the third inning, Ramirez took a 91-mile-per-hour strike, took a ball, and as the "Manny" chants grew louder, Ramirez took an 89-mph strike right down Broadway before grounding out meekly to short.

Defensively, Ramirez fielded two balls hit his way.

Jason Bourgeois led off the game for the Sounds with a flyout to Ramirez, and Ramirez played a ball off the wall on a double by Nashville's Adam Heether.