David Ortiz is putting together a season for the ages. His .684 slugging percentage and 1.092 OPS are the best in the major leagues. His .329 batting average would be the second-highest of his 20-year career.
He’s doing things he’s never done before. Or at least coming close. On Sunday he was an unlucky bounce away from hitting for the first cycle of his career. With a homer, a double, and a single already under his belt, he stepped up to the plate needing a triple to complete the feat. He’s Big Papi, so of course he drilled a line drive to the 420 sign in the triangle – exactly where he needed to place it for a chance to make it to third.
But the ball hopped into the bullpen for a ground-rule double and Ortiz had to settle for a four-hit day with nine total bases.
You know you’re having a great season when a day like that is considered settling.
Ortiz is the 40-year-old man leading a team of youngsters scoring runs at an unprecedented rate. The Sox have hit at least one home run in the last 22 games, the longest streak of games with a homer in the history of the franchise. They have scored 66 more runs than their opponents this season, a far cry from this point last year when their run differential stood at minus-32.
“I told you guys we had a good team,” Ortiz said a week earlier, after hitting a tying triple in the ninth and a walk-off double in the 11th at Fenway.
It’s news when Ortiz tells you he likes the hitters batting around him in the lineup. There have been many seasons when he would quietly tell you how he needs better hitters offering him protection. If he’s the only guy producing in a lineup, opposing pitchers are going to work around him, willing to walk him rather than offer a pitch to hit.
Pitchers can’t do that now. Instead, they’re worried about pitching to Jackie Bradley, Jr., who has a 27-game hitting streak – tied for the sixth-longest in Red Sox history. They’re being careful with Xander Bogaerts, who quietly has a 16-game hitting streak – the second longest in baseball right now. They see Mookie Betts at the top of the lineup hitting for average and power, a healthy Dustin Pedroia in the second spot.
There are a lot of ways this lineup can hurt you, but at the center of it all sits Big Papi.
Last week the Red Sox inducted four new members into their Hall of Fame. It was an event filled with legendary former players, including members of the 2004 team that changed everything for Boston fans.
Ortiz was quick to point out that the ’04 group taught him how to play the game. He thanked Pedro Martinez and Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield and Mike Timlin. He said he tries to keep that legacy going with today’s players.
The Red Sox are filled with young talent, but this core of kids know they wouldn’t be the same without the greatest designated hitter of all time. Ortiz is the engine.
Someday he’ll be the center of attention when inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. He should also be in Cooperstown.
All that will have to wait. For now he’s putting together a remarkable farewell tour, and still insisting that retirement awaits at the end of the year.
From the looks of it, this may be his best season ever.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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