Projo Sox Blog

Terry Francona gave David Ortiz a piece of advice recently, about where he should keep his eyes when he's walking up to the plate.

"We actually told him, don't look at your batting average right now," Francona said.

For a while, that was great advice --Ortiz' average was mired under .200 for most of the first two months. But seemingly every day, that number on the scoreboard is getting a little easier to look at. Now it sits at .210, and in the last two weeks, Ortiz and his hot bat have four home runs and 10 RBI, including a homer and three runs batted in last night.

"He's swinging the bat like he's supposed to. Just had a couple bad months that he's going to have to live with, looking at that batting average being lower than he wants it to be," Francona said.

Ortiz has been working hard on getting his timing back to where he wants it, and he feels he's getting there.

"My swing is all about timing, trying to start early, with the legs... time to see the ball, recognize it, and do what I want to do."

His last three home runs have looked like a perfect spray chart: one to left-center, one to dead center, and now one last night to the right field bullpen. That's a good sign, he said.

"That's what I normally do when I'm swinging the bat good. I don't really pick any spots to hit the ball to. So I just swing hard, wherever the ball is at, and let things happen."

Ortiz was dropped from third to sixth in the lineup during the depths of his slump. Last night, he batted fifth -- a move that Francona chalked up to lefty-righty lineup balance, but that Ortiz said was welcome regardless.

"Yeah -- I was happy today," he said with his trademark wide smile.

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi David Ortiz Terry Francona

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