Projo Sox Blog

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON _ With the exception of David Ortiz, every Red Sox in the staring lineup registered at least one hit on Sunday against the Mets.

Ortiz went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. His best plate appearance came in the bottom of the fourth inning when he smoked a line drive directly at Mets first baseman Daniel Murphy for an out. The ball was hit so hard Ortiz never got out of the batter's box.
All he could do was stand there and smile.

"I'm this close to crying, man. But I'm trying not to," he said with a laugh after the Red Sox dismissed the Mets, 12-5. "I'm this close, but I need to keep my boys rolling. I figure if I'm down, a lot of people are looking at me and it can get contagious sometimes. I need to keep the same personality and maybe things will start clicking."

With his 0-fer performance on Sunday, Ortiz is hitting .195.

Until last Wednesday against the Blue Jays, Big Papi was held homerless through the first 149 plate appearances this season. His slump became so bad, Red Sox manager Terry Francona decided to give Ortiz a break last weekend where he did not play the entire 3-game set in Seattle.

Since that homer, he's 2-for-18 with a walk. He was asked if it was time for another break.

"No more breaks. It's ride or die," he said. "Nah, not now. I like what I am right now. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm taking good swings and getting ground balls. There's not much I can do about it. All I can do is put a good swing on the ball and hope it goes my way. I'm seeing good pitches."

While Ortiz was putting on a good show in the clubhouse, Red Sox manager Terry Francona realizes the slugger's real mindset.

"He's frustrated," he said. "From a team perspective, it's certainly better to talk about it after a win. But in the big picture, we need to get him going. It's been tough for him."

It's very possible Francona will give him a day off with an early game in Minnesota on Monday (Memorial Day), but the manager is trying to walk that fine line of doing the right thing.

"You try to be supportive and you try to help. The last thing I want to do is hinder. He needs support right now. It's been tough for him. We'll get it figured out. I just don't want him to feel like he's on a island. I'd rather him feel like we're with him. We've had a lot of good times with him, so when it's not so good, I don't want him to feel like he's by himself."

Red Sox veteran Tim Wakefield has had a few heart-to-heart talks with Ortiz, all of which Wakefield said are personal. Still, he knows how important Ortiz is, and needs to be, for the Sox to be successful.

"It's not fun to watch and it's not easy to watch," said Wakefield. "But we all love David so much. He has earned the right to have a slump like this because he's been so huge for us over the last six years of clutch hitting and huge home runs. He's a big reason why we won in '04. He's just a tremendous asset to have on our team. Whether he's hitting well, or not hitting well, his presence in our lineup makes us good."

That feeling is present all around the Red Sox clubhouse.

"David is important to us. There's no way around that, and we don't want get around that," said Francona. "We would rather spend our time getting him on track than trying to figure out a way to hide him. That's not what we want to do."

 Tags  David Ortiz Red Sox Terry Francona

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