David Ortiz has been out of the Red Sox lineup for nine games and — with the exception of Tuesday night — Boston’s offense has let it show. Before Adrian Gonzalez’s two-homer game on Tuesday, the Red Sox lineup was lacking pop. Considering Ortiz has been arguably their best power hitter this season, it’s safe to assume his absence has contributed to the power outage.
Fear not, Red Sox fans. Ortiz is scheduled to return to the Boston lineup Wednesday night in Texas and already has a plan in place.
“Go deep,” Big Papi told the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham when asked what his plans were for his return.
Man, do I hate shot-calling. People make guarantees and call their shot so often in this day and age that it has become risk-free behavior. If Ortiz strikes out four times on Wednesday night, no reporter is going to call him out about having called his shot. If he belts a homer, they will be worshiping Big Papi and signing his praises in headlines all night and morning. That being said, if anyone can pull it off it’s probably a guy that cares about his stats as much as Ortiz does.
H/T to CBSSports.com’s Eye on Baseball blog for the story.
