Big Papi to Joe Girardi: Flip this.
David Ortiz’ majestic bat flip after Ortiz’ long, two-run home run in the fifth inning of the Red Sox 6-4 win over the Yankees last night at Yankee Stadium didn’t go over well with the Yankees manager.
“I didn’t really care for it,” Girardi said.
Ortiz couldn’t care less about the criticism.
“It’s not my first time. It’s not going to be my last time. So, big deal,” he said.
“I’m a home run hitter. It’s not like I do it all the time. But it’s part of the excitement. What can I tell you? I just went deep. You want more emotion than that. I just went deep. It’s another homer for Papi.
“That was one of the Papi good ones.”
Yes it was, and it was home run No. 14 on the year for the free-agent-to-be who is hitting .324 with 32 RBIs. It’s 2004 all over again.
Ortiz crushed the home run just after rookie Hector Noesi went inside on him. This was a night that Mark Teixeira had to leave the game in the first inning after being hit on the right knee by a Jon Lester cutter. There was plenty of emotion in the air.
So Papi added his Manny Ramirez-like exclamation point with his bat flip and his slow parade around the bases.
“That’s Papi style,” Ortiz said. “You saw that before.”
Yes we have. It’s all part of the show. You have to appreciate what Ortiz has done. The Red Sox are back to being a two-headed, long-ball hitting monster with Adrian Gonzalez and Ortiz. With Manny long gone, Oritz has his new hitting partner in A-Gone.
Watching Gonzalez, who tripled in a run in the first, work has made Ortiz a more fearsome hitter because of the great approach that Gonzalez, who leads baseball with 51 RBIs and 84 hits, brings to the plate every at-bat. As a result, Ortiz is not forcing the issue. He is swinging at more strikes, taking the ball the other way and when he gets a pitch he can handle, he’s crushing it, as he did last night.
If Girardi and the Yankees want to do something about the Papi Show, they have to stop Ortiz from pounding the ball.
At some point, the Yankees are going to have to beat the Red Sox and they will have to solve their Gonzalez and Ortiz problem.
Even though the Red Sox got off to that dreadful 2-10 start they have bounced back. The Yankees might have to go into wild-card mode as October gets closer. Right now, the Rivalry belongs to the Red Sox, who hold a 6-1 advantage in the series this season.
It’s time for the Yankees to step it up in a big way, but their power hitters can’t match the Red Sox’ and it didn’t help that Teixeira had to leave the game. Alex Rodriguez was 0-for-5 and ended the game with a strikeout with a runner on second against flame-thrower Jonathan Papelbon.
The Yankees and the rest of the AL have to find a way to get Gonzalez and Ortiz out. The Yankees lack of lefty pitching does not help.
In many ways, this three-game series is about finding the best way for each team to attack one other later in the year. Think of it as a June science experiment.
“David is swinging at strikes,” Terry Francona said. “And he’s hitting the ball to left field. When David was really going well, when he was that monster ‘04 to ‘06 he drove the ball to left-centerfield about as good as anyone in the game, probably better, now it seems like he’s back to that.”
It’s all part of the Big Papi Show. The Yankees and Girardi must deal with it.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com