Ortiz Lifts Sox To Victory by Jared Carrabis
Pigs fly and so do the balls out of Fenway


The wait is over; David Ortiz has done it.

After waiting 40 long games into the 2009 season, Red Sox fans finally saw what they have been waiting to see. It may have taken far longer than any fan ever could have expected, but nonetheless, it came.

As the saying goes; hitting is contagious, and that saying proved itself to be very true on Wednesday night. The Red Sox began their hit parade in the bottom of the third inning when the captain, Jason Varitek, connected for a solo shot over the Green Monster to make it 1-0, Sox. Later in the inning, Boston plated their second run after Dustin Pedroia grounded into a double play; no RBI was credited to Pedroia.

With Brad Penny putting up goose eggs for Boston, the Red Sox went to work in the bottom of the fifth. For the second time in the game, Jason Varitek led off the inning with a solo home run. Only this time, the home run sailed on a line drive to the center field bleachers. Later in the inning, David Ortiz came to the plate, as the Fenway Faithful came to their feet in support of their lovable slugger.

With a 1-1 count, rookie southpaw, Brett Cecil fired a 90 MPH fastball towards home plate. Ortiz rifled the barrel of his bat towards the fastball and crushed the 1-1 offering to deep center field. The ball carried and carried, as the fans at Fenway, the fans watching at home along with everyone in the Red Sox dugout blew as hard as they could to help push this ball as far as it could carry. Red Sox Nation's eyes widened, as the ball that was struck by Ortiz finally came down above the center field wall into the camera well.

"You could see the sheer joy in the dugout," said Francona. "We were all blowing on it; we wanted it to go out."

Fenway erupted as if Ortiz has just hit a walk-off home run, but that just goes to show how supportive Red Sox fans have been for Ortiz throughout his early struggles in the 2009 season. After his first trip around the bases since September 22, 2008, Ortiz was greeted by his teammates in the Red Sox dugout. The Fenway Faithful were not satisfied until Ortiz popped out of the Sox dugout for a curtain call.

"I got that big old monkey off my back, you know?" Ortiz said. "You have to understand, sometimes, that's all it takes, to have a good at-bat and get a big hit and start clicking."

The home run by Ortiz sparked an offensive explosion that aided the effort to inch the Red Sox closer to the first place Blue Jays. Kevin Youkilis returned to the Red Sox lineup by going 3-for-5, including a single after Ortiz's home run. With a man on first, Jason Bay clobbered a two-run bomb that rivaled distances that his predecessor in left field hit before his playing days in Boston. Mike Lowell followed up Bay's 12th home run of the season by smacking his seventh long ball of the year over the Green Monster to up Boston's lead to 8-0.

"It started with David," said Jason Bay, who homered in the same inning as Ortiz. "When the ball went up, everybody in the dugout was screaming for it to get out. I think it's genuine caring for a teammate. He's been through a lot this year, and it was like, 'Hey, he needed that.'

The Sox connected for four bombs in the inning, making it the first time that Boston has homered four times in an inning since the record-setting four consecutive home runs that Manny Ramirez, JD Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek hit off of Yankees' pitcher, Chase Wright.

Brad Penny kept the Blue Jays in check by carrying a shutout into the seventh inning, before allowing two earned runs. Overall, Penny pitched a masterful outing and left to a well-deserved standing ovation. When the books were finally closed on the right-hander, he had thrown 96 pitches (58 for strikes), over 6.2 innings, giving up two earned runs on nine scattered hits. The combination of Manny Delcarmen, Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito combined to keep the Jays far from Boston's big lead.

When it was all said and done, the Red Sox walked away with a 15-hit, 8-run, 4-homer victory to get within a game-and-a-half of the Toronto Blue Jays. Jon Lester will get the ball on Thursday, as Boston attempts to sweep their way within a half game of the first place Jays. Lester has been phenomenal in his career at Fenway Park, notching a 17-4 record with a 3.59 ERA and 172 strikeouts in 210.1 innings.

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

Obviously I'll break down Ortiz by the numbers. His 149 at bats without a home run was the longest drought of his entire Major League career. The last time he hit a home run during the regular season was on September 22, 2008, aside from the home run that he hit in Boston's monumental comeback in last fall's ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays on October 16, 2008 (I was there). A whopping 319 Major Leaguers homered before Ortiz in 2009 (including some National League pitchers). And last, but not least, the stat that speaks volumes: when Ortiz went 125 at bats without a home run, he became the first player in baseball history to go that many at bats without a home run after previously having a 50+ HR season (54 in 2006).

Now that the most anticipated home run in Red Sox history since Manny's 500th and Ortiz's single season record-breaker in '06 has been hit, we can go back to worrying about more important things, like...winning.

Jason Varitek blasted two home runs in Wednesday night's win to bring his 2009 total to seven long balls in 111 at bats. Through 111 at bats in 2008, Varitek had just three home runs and finished the season with 13. In 30 games for Boston in 2009, Varitek is more than half-way to his HR total of a year ago, while his batting average stands at .243 with an .842 OPS. Varitek finished 2008 with 13 HR, a .220 average and a .672 OPS.

In the third inning of Wednesday's win, Jacoby Ellsbury dropped down a bunt single to extend his hitting streak to 15 games. Ellsbury finished his night by going 1-for-4 with a walk. The left-handed hitting outfielder is 24-for-69 (.348) over his 15-game hitting streak, but the highlight of his night may have come from a defensive perspective. On Wednesday, Ellsbury tied a Major League record for most putouts in a nine-inning game by an outfielder after the former Oregon State Beaver flagged down 12 fly balls.

"Good thing he stretched," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona of his speedy outfielder. "He had a lot going on." Since arriving on the scene in 2007, Ellsbury has played all three outfield positions and has made zero errors in exactly 500 total chances.

Last, but not least, Kevin Youkilis made his return to the Red Sox lineup on Wednesday, and after going 0-for-6 in his rehab assignment with Pawtucket, the Red Sox first baseman went 3-for-5 without skipping a beat. His three-hit game boosted his average above the .400 mark at .404. His cartoon-like numbers continue, as his OPS sits at 1.222, with 11 doubles, 6 HR, 20 RBI and 16 walks as Boston's cleanup hitter.

A big congratulations goes out to David Oritz. Here's to 30 more of those,
-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 8

Published on May 21, 2009

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