Maybe the sight of pinstripes jolted David Ortiz. Maybe it was a chat with manager Terry Francona. Whatever, Big Papi didn’t look quite like a guy who entered the game in what he called the worst stretch of his life.
“I’ve never been in this kind of funk,” Ortiz said last night before the Red Sox made it four straight wins this season against the Yanks with a 6-4 victory at Yankee Stadium.
“I want to take this as something the baseball gods want to teach me: ‘It’s not as easy as you make it look, big boy.’ So I’m just going to stay positive.”
Well, he was positive in mind, approach and, for the most part, results last night. Hitless in his four previous games (0-of-11) and lugging a .208 average, he rapped a pair of doubles and drew a walk in his first three at-bats before rapping into a double play — and then being intentionally walked in the eighth.
Despite a 2-of-3 to nudge his average to .222, he remains in one of his worst home-run droughts.
Ortiz doubled in the Red Sox’ run-scoring first inning, walked in the third then doubled home a run in the fourth. All that talk of staying positive seemed like more than just talk.
And Ortiz gave a lot of credit to Francona, a guy he thinks of as far more than a manager.
“Terry has been absolutely great here,” said Ortiz. “I don’t see Terry as my coach anymore. I see him as my dad. He’s been so great to me that every time he talks, I’m nothing but ears.”
So Francona felt the need to sit down pregame with his slumping behemoth. It’s one thing when one of the kids struggles. But when a veteran of Ortiz’s stature is down, Francona had to let Ortiz know just how much he is behind him.
“I’ve been standing there for five years patting him on the fanny as he runs by, knocking in all those runs and winning games for us,” Francona said. “Now when he needs a little help, I don’t want to be the one to abandon him. I’m not going to do that. He’s had a tough month.”
Tough? Try brutal. Ortiz doesn’t have a home run yet.
“He’s frustrated and he wants to do better and we need him,” Francona said. “Now is my time to be there and help him.”
Ortiz said he has been down before — OK, never this down – but always has been able to bounce back.
“Work. Just worked,” Ortiz said of his past solution. “Clean up your head, because, mentally, sometimes you get beat up pretty bad.
“I’ve never been in a slump for too long. I’d get 20, 30 maybe 40 at-bats without hitting a home run and then the next thing you know, your next 20 at-bats, you’ve got five or six,” said Ortiz, who has 99 official at-bats this season.
He has gone 115 at-bats overall for his longest home-run drought since going 128 AB in 2002.
