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Ortiz Sparks Red Sox Offense

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By TONY FABRIZIO

afabrizio@tampatrib.com

Published: October 18, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - When Mama's happy, everybody's happy, the old saying goes.

And so it is with the Red Sox that when David "Big Papi" Ortiz is hitting and driving in runs, good things are happening for Boston.

The Red Sox trailed the Rays three games to one in the American League Championship Series and were down 7-1 in Game 5. Ortiz was 1-for-17 in the series when he came to the plate with two on in the bottom of the seventh Thursday night.

What if Ortiz had struck out or popped out to center to end the inning? The Rays probably would have been celebrating an American League pennant.

He didn't. He cracked a rocket off hard-throwing Grant Balfour over the right-field wall, and suddenly the Sox trailed only 7-4.

Their offense caught fire as if a gasoline tanker had crashed into their dugout.

"The Ortiz home run, that was the turning point, where we felt we had a chance," Coco Crisp said later. "It was like, 'OK, here we go.'"

After Ortiz's shot, seven of the next 12 Boston batters reached base against what had been a very effective Tampa Bay bullpen.

J.D. Drew, who had been 2-for-15 in the series, belted a two-run homer off Dan Wheeler. Mark Kotsay doubled, and Crisp drove in a run.

With two out in the ninth against J.P. Howell, Kevin Youkilis singled and went to second on Evan Longoria's throwing error, and Drew hit a drive over the head of RF Gabe Gross. Final: 8-7, Boston.

Most of the damage started with Ortiz, the Red Sox career postseason leader in home runs, RBIs, runs and doubles who hadn't done much in the series up to that point.

"You know what? David's a huge part of our offense," team hitting leader Dustin Pedroia said. "He hits in the middle of the order, he drives in runs, he does a lot. It was great to see him hit that home run."

Tough Call

Boston manager Terry Francona faces a difficult decision for tonight on whether to keep AL stolen-bases champion Jacoby Ellsbury on the bench for the third consecutive game or to sit Crisp or Drew, who both made key contributions Thursday night.

Ellsbury is 0-for-14 in the series, so that will likely factor into the decision.

"I just need to look at a few more things," Francona said. "I was having some printer problems. We'll get it figured out."

Crisp or Ellsbury will start in center field, and if both play, Crisp would play right. Drew has played right field in 106 of his 109 regular-season starts this season.

"We tried to not let either one of them Crisp or Ellsbury sit too long, because both of them are too valuable to ever sit for a long time," Francona said. "Both of them wanted to play every day; that wasn't possible."

Not So Unlikely

Although Drew entered Thursday night batting .222 in the playoffs, his late-game heroics didn't come out of nowhere.

In last year's ALCS comeback against Cleveland, he hit a grand slam in Game 6. This year, he drilled a two-run tiebreaking home run in Game 2 of the division series against the Angels.

Drew was limited to 109 games because of injuries, but he was the AL Player of the Month in June after batting. 337 with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs.

"He's obviously a very dangerous hitter, and he's been able to show that," Francona said.

He Said It

With Boston trying to overcome a 3-1 series deficit for the third time in five postseasons, Francona was asked whether history creates his team's confidence or confidence creates the history.

"My IQ doesn't allow me to answer that question," he said.

Tony Fabrizio

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