The No. 1 Yankees killer continues to demolish pinstriped pitching.
David Ortiz blasted a mammoth home run last night, pounding a Hiroki Kuroda fastball into the right-field bleachers in the Red Sox’s 3-0 rain-soaked, storm-shortened win in The Bronx.
“Yeah,” Boston starter Clay Buchholz said, “it was pretty special.”
Big Papi is relentless when it comes to the Yankees — mauling them year after year. In 193 career games against the Yankees, including the playoffs, Ortiz has 43 homers and 144 RBIs.
Last night’s solo shot was Ortiz’s first homer against the Yankees this year, but he missed the season-opening series in The Bronx in early April. The slugging designated hitter was sidelined with an Achilles injury. He missed the first 15 games of the year and didn’t make his 2013 debut until April 20.
“Just put a good swing and make things happen,” he said of the homer.
Ortiz also helped the Red Sox score the game’s first run too. After popping out in his first at-bat against Kuroda in the second inning, the 37-year-old came to the plate in the fourth with Dustin Pedroia on first base. Ortiz singled to right-center, sending Pedroia to third. Pedroia scored on a Mike Napoli groundout, giving the Sox a 1-0 lead.
Two innings later, Ortiz had an 0-1 count against Kuroda before he deposited his moonshot to right. He reacted by casually flipping his bat toward the Red Sox dugout.
“What went farther, the ball or your bat flip?” third baseman Will Middlebrooks jokingly asked in the clubhouse.
Overall this season, Ortiz has 10 homers, 36 RBIs and a 1.023 OPS in 39 games. He could reach 500 homers if he can stay healthy for another few seasons. Ortiz now has 411 career homers along with 1,362 RBIs.