Mighty blow outdid wind

Kevin Youkilis, standing on second base, was caught off-guard. What, exactly, was he supposed to do?

With David Ortiz's eighth-inning blast traveling and traveling and traveling, Youkilis weighed his options. Tag? Go? Wait? Because he was sure, sure, that even a mammoth shot from Ortiz couldn't go out. Not with those winds. Not off the bat of a lefty.

But, of course, it did, caught by Jonathan Papelbon in the Red Sox bullpen for a three-run homer and a nice soft cushion for the closer, who pitched a non-save ninth to give the Red Sox a 7-3 win in their first meeting of the season with the Yankees.

''That ball was crushed," Youkilis said. ''I couldn't believe that got out. I was on second base. I didn't know what to do. The ball was up there for so long."

Strong winds kept the center field flag blowing straight in on a cold and blustery first day of May, making it seem that no one would be able to hit one out of the park, not unless it was hit to left.

''You'd have to have one of those line-drive home runs," said Youkilis. ''I put my money on Wily Mo Peña out of all the guys, a strong righty. David, when he hit it, it was unbelievable. Think if it was blowing out with 25 mile per hour winds how far that ball would have gone."

But Ortiz, though he twice hit the opposite way against a New York team that started with a shift and finished the game in a normal alignment, used his power to cut through the weather. Lefthander Mike Myers, formerly of the Red Sox, had been brought in solely to pitch to Ortiz. The matchup didn't work as Yankees manager Joe Torre had hoped, although Torre said he would bring in Myers to face Ortiz tonight, should the game dictate it.

''Strong guy, man," Ortiz said. ''Swing hard and hit it. What can you do about it? You've got a lot of crazy wind coming into Fenway. Got to really have good contact to hit it out."

With Alex Cora walking in the eighth, followed by Youkilis reaching after catching an Aaron Small pitch on the elbow, Mark Loretta stroked an RBI single (actually the game-winner) up the middle past pitcher Tanyon Sturtze. With Youkilis on second and Loretta on first and Myers in the game, Ortiz stepped up and, after the count had gone full, hit his smash, breaking open the game.

Add his 11th home run of the season and fifth in his last 10 games to the hits he had in the first and fifth innings, and Ortiz had four RBIs, giving him 24 on the year and 12 in his last 10 games. Which shouldn't be all that surprising, considering his stats against the Yankees. Including last night, Ortiz is crushing the Bombers to the tune of a .316 average, 16 home runs, and 57 RBIs in 266 at-bats.

But with blasts by Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi falling short in center field, the talk after the game was how Ortiz managed his Bunyanesque feat.

''Tonight was not a good night to hit," Sox manager Terry Francona said. ''How David hit that out, I don't know. I was surprised it went out. I didn't think anybody could hit a ball like that out of the ballpark tonight.

''He's very talented and he studies hard. Don't get me wrong, I think Mike Myers did a great job here in exactly those situations, but I felt OK about letting David face him."

Quipped Torre, ''I guess if anybody is going to do it, Big Papi is going to find his way through the wind," only hours after he had referred (tongue in cheek) to Boston's big hitters as ''those two big, ugly, rotten, dirty guys that come up third and fourth."

And after what happened, it's a good guess that Ortiz isn't looking a whole lot better to the Yankees.