OAKLAND, Calif. — David Ortiz put on a show during batting practice yesterday, launching ball after ball over the 388 sign in right-center while fans oohed, ahhed and scrambled for souvenirs.
He left the cage with a hop in his step, joked with a reporter in Spanish, and headed to the clubhouse. He looked like a guy with a homer in him . . . until the game started.
Ortiz’ first four at-bats went thusly: strikeout, pop-up, groundout, groundout, and that list does not adequately convey the futility of his endeavors. He barely made contact, much less threatened to leave the yard.
But if there’s one thing we should’ve learned long ago, it’s that Ortiz only needs one swing. And his came in the 10th inning with the Red Sox facing the possibility of a disheartening, dispiriting loss and sweep that would’ve led for calls to general manager Ben Cherington to depress the plunger.
Instead, Ortiz did what he’s done so many times before — give the Red Sox hope in the face of despair.
His solo homer off reliever Fernando Abad settled a 7-6 win that gave the Red Sox something to feel good about before jetting to Seattle.
“The people who say there’s no such thing as clutch, watch this guy play,” marveled teammate Jonny Gomes. “He almost treats it like a video game. ‘Oh, the game’s not on the line? We’ll let the other guys go to work. The other guys got a big lead. Oh, they tied it? Let me check back in.’ It’s not that easy.”
Ortiz just makes it look that way. He drilled an 80-mph curveball from Abad out to one of the deepest parts of the park in left-center, roughly 400 feet from home plate.
“You know how I play in extra innings, especially when we’ve got to go away,” Ortiz said. “Good swing, changed the game.”
For all the attention paid to satellite members of the Red Sox this season — Will Jackie Bradley hit? Is Mookie Betts the answer? What’s the solution at the back of the rotation? — the Red Sox will go as far as their stars take them.
And no star is bigger than Ortiz, who has endured his share of struggles. Yes, he’s hit a number of big homers, including winners against Texas and Detroit, as well as a tying shot against the Twins in the 10th last week. But he’s also muddling along with a .248 average and .823 OPS, both well below his career norms.
“I like to go out there and make things happen,” Ortiz said. “I’ve been having a hard time, myself, trying to get some hits. But in the long run it’s going to happen. I’m not going too crazy about it. Just taking it day by day and make things happen at some point.”
His teammates expected nothing less when he stepped in against the left-handed Abad.
“I mean, he’s done it so many times,” Napoli said. “I got a good view of it on-deck. Just a great hitter. In situations like that, he seems to come through all the time. . . . He can have a rough game until then, but he can pop one out of there any time.”
The season has been marked by frustration for Ortiz, who has often had to go it alone offensively. His 17 homers are more than double Napoli’s eight, which rank second on the team.
“To see what he does, you’ve got to understand he’s getting their best,” Gomes said. “Not that people look on-deck and (don’t respect) Nap, but he’s getting every single pitcher’s best stuff. We sit there in the on-deck circle and dugout and go, ‘Whoo. That was nasty. Pitcher hasn’t done that all day.’ Well, that’s for him. He gets all those lefties out of the pen, like he hit one off today. Special man.”
There’s no sense in proclaiming this win anything other than desperately needed. It doesn’t mean the Red Sox have turned their season around, and it doesn’t mean their offensive struggles are behind them.
So let’s just enjoy it for what it was — another example of Ortiz coming up big when the Red Sox needed it most.
No comments:
Post a Comment