BOSTON — Is there anyone in baseball you’d rather have up in the very situation that presented itself Sunday night than the man who in fact took his turn at the plate?
We’re talking at this very moment. So you have to consider Derek Jeter’s bum left ankle and therefore eliminate him from the conversation. Maybe Miguel Cabrera, although he too is hurting.
You’d want David Ortiz. You’d be rewarded, once more, as Big Papi raised the roof on his legend in the cool air of Fenway Park.
Ortiz, his team down by four runs with two outs in the eighth inning, delivered a game-tying, grand slam off Tigers closer Joaquin Benoit that dramatically changed the tenor of this American League Championship Series. When Jarrod Saltalamacchia delivered a walk-off single off Detroit’s Rick Porcello, scoring Jonny Gomes from third base for the 6-5 Red Sox victory in Game 2, we had ourselves a bona fide matchup not long after this was looking like a Tigers pitching clinic.
“I tell you what, man,” Ortiz said, his 15 career postseason home runs and 54 RBI in 315 plate appearances adding gravity to his words, “postseason is something that it can work both ways for you. It can go well, if you stay calm. Or it can go bad if you try to overdo things.”
Think Ortiz stayed calm? He crushed the first pitch he saw, a changeup from Benoit, over the fence in right-center field and into the Tigers’ bullpen. It evaded the outstretched glove of a running Torii Hunter, Ortiz’s long-ago teammate from the Twins, by a few inches. It rocked the previously dormant Fenway to new heights — that is, until, Saltalamacchia’s ninth-inning single made it even louder.
“David hitting in the postseason, period, you knew he was going to break out of it,” Saltalamacchia said. “Coming against Benoit right there, I felt something good was going to happen. I think everyone knew something good was going to happen.”
Now tied with the Tigers at one game apiece, the Red Sox have much work remaining before they can clinch their first World Series appearance since 2007. The series heads to Detroit with Tigers super-ace Justin Verlander ready to try to tame Boston’s fierce lineup the same way Anibal Sanchez and four relievers did in Game 1, a 1-0 Tigers victory and Game 2 starter Max Scherzer did for seven innings. In all, the Detroit pitchers have picked up 32 strikeouts against the Red Sox in these first two games.
Yet these Red Sox led the majors with 853 runs because they scored late as well as early, and because they rarely relented. So when Tigers manager Jim Leyland lifted Scherzer after seven strong innings and 108 pitches, the Red Sox viewed the opening of the visiting bullpen door as an invitation
Former Yankee Jose Veras gave up a one-out double to Will Middlebrooks. Lefty Drew Smyly entered and walked Jacoby Ellsbury. Mike Francesa’s favorite pitcher Al Alburquerque entered and struck out Shane Victorino for the second out, only to serve up a base hit to Dustin Pedroia, loading the bases for Ortiz.
Even though he had lefty specialist (and Yankees alumnus) Phil Coke warming up, Leyland went to his closer Benoit for the four-out save, a sensible call. You want your best pitcher in the most important situation, and it wasn’t getting any more important than this.
“Well, I know facing (Benoit) a couple of times during the regular season, and he kind of started slow and then went back to the heat,” Ortiz said. So he was ready for the slow. “I know they’re not going to let me beat them with a fastball in that situation,” he said.
Boom. Game tied and, soon after, game won. These Red Sox don’t face the same adversity as their 2004 ancestors, from whom only Ortiz still plays here. But their lineup is about as good.
“David so many times has come up big, whether it’s regular season, postseason,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “None bigger than tonight.”
The Yankees might beg to differ on that. Regardless, the Red Sox are alive and kicking because they had exactly the guy anyone would want in the biggest spot of the postseason so far. Why would Ortiz stop delivering now?