Hero Ortiz swings into action again
He sent them home deliriously happy -- even if the feeling is destined to last only a few hours.
The Red Sox season will end soon, perhaps as early as tonight in Game 5, but Boston made sure they went down swinging, stealing a heart-stopping victory on David Ortiz's walkoff home run off Paul Quantrill in the 12th inning last night.
Ortiz deposited Quantrill's 2-1 fastball into the right-field seats with his close friend Manny Ramirez aboard to keep the flickering Red Sox season alive with a 6-4 win, and to avoid a humiliating sweep to the Yankees.
"Paul has always made good pitches on me," Ortiz said afterward. "Every time I face him, he throws that fastball coming right at me.
"The one he threw tonight, it was a good pitch. When the ball comes at you like that, you usually give up on it, but I was kind of looking for it."
It was a fitting ending for the congenial designated hitter, who submitted a career year with Boston during the regular season, posting career bests in homers (41), total bases (351), walks (75) and a .603 slugging percentage.
Together, he and Ramirez had banded together to become one of the most feared one-two punches in baseball.
Yet for all of Ortiz's clutch hits this season, none were quite as dramatic as last night's towering shot, which came shortly before 1:30 in the morning. As the ball took flight, Ortiz immediately began celebrating, and was mobbed by his teammates at home plate, briefly savoring a win that will go down as the longest American League Championship Series game in history (5 hours 2 minutes).
Boston's slugger has been a hero in back-to-back series. Ortiz hit a walkoff homer in the 10th inning of Game 3 against the Anaheim Angels to complete a sweep of that team, and cemented his reputation as a money player.
Ortiz's homer last night was particularly satisfying because he had a chance earlier in the evening to send everyone home with a smile on their face, but failed to deliver.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the bases loaded, New York's redoubtable reliever, Mariano Rivera, coaxed Ortiz into a harmless pop-up to second base. That left the teams deadlocked at 4-4, and a clearly agitated Ortiz vowing to make better use of his next opportunity -- if there was one.
As it was, both clubs were forced to go deep into their bullpens as the game dragged on, and the managers on either side ran out of bullets. Yet in this game, Boston's maligned relievers held on to allow Ortiz to do what he does best -- crush the ball.
"We set out today to win," said manager Terry Francona. "That was our only objective. Somehow we did it. Now our only objective is to win [today]. That's what we have to do."
Although the Red Sox are still trying to climb out of a deep, deep hole, Ortiz renewed some faith -- and some credibility -- in his clubhouse full of "idiots" by proving, at least for the moment, that his team truly never quits, and truly does believe they can win in almost any situation.
"We're home," Ortiz explained. "When we're at home, anything can happen. This is a team that never gives up. We have a whole bunch of times come from behind . . . even if we lose, we play the game the right way."
Certainly the big fella, who once upon a time was dissed by the Minnesota Twins, can.
It was Ortiz, after all, who slapped a single to center field in the fifth, knocking in two runs and wiping out a 2-1 Yankees lead.
In a series where Johnny Damon is 1 for 18, Mark Bellhorn 1 for 14, Trot Nixon 4 for 17, and Kevin Millar 3 for 15, Ortiz's timely hits have been a godsend. He is hitting .471 in this series with six RBIs and 13 total bases.
Yet he is promising nothing today against the vaunted Yankees.
"We are playing a team that is so strong all the way around," he cautioned. "When you get an opportunity to win, you've got to try hard, because you won't get many chances."
Last night, one more chance was enough.
Jackie MacMullan is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is macmullan@globe.com.
