Shifty Ortiz was able to pick his spots

NEW YORK -- In the first inning last night, when eight pitches darted out of the right hand of Mike Mussina toward David Ortiz, the Red Sox slugger saw just about everything. Fastball. Changeup. Curveball.

Ortiz, who fell behind, 0 and 1, ran the count to 3 and 2, fouling off three two-strike pitches. Mussina's ninth pitch, a fastball on the inner half, bore down toward the plate. It was the pitch Ortiz saw the best -- one that blasted off his bat and thudded into the upper deck in right field, giving the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.

For Ortiz, who finished with a career-best four hits for the eighth time of his career (his last four-hit effort came last September against Tampa Bay), he was just thankful that he saw Mussina's ninth pitch.

''This past week at home," said Ortiz with a shake of his head, ''I felt like I had 20 guys playing defense against me, three pitchers on the mound, and I was guessing who was going to throw the ball."

That's because Ortiz, during the team's recent six-game homestand, struggled through a 4-for-24 tailspin. He struck out seven times. He had only one home run and scored only two runs, his mind scrambled by frustration and his drives sailing straight into the teeth of opponents' shifts.

Last night, Ortiz was scuffling in a 2-for-24 skid in his last six games, including a 1-for-4 effort in Boston's 14-3 rout Tuesday. Ortiz, who entered the game hitting .256, snapped that drought with his first-inning clout, his 12th of the season, and followed up with three singles, beating the Yankees' shift each time.

''Any time you get hits, you feel good about yourself," said Sox manager Terry Francona. ''His first at-bat was just gorgeous. Then it's a matter of how you're defended. Those are normally outs but he was able to find holes. He's probably feeling good about himself. Confidence is a huge factor."

Before the game, Ortiz, who has been suffering from the flu, worked with hitting coach Ron Jackson. While Ortiz didn't share any technical adjustments he may have made last night, Ortiz acknowledged that the biggest change was mental. During his slump, Ortiz thought he was uncorking some good swings. The balls that came out of those swings, however, usually landed in defenders' gloves.

''It's right here," Ortiz said, pointing to his head. ''I talked with Papa and looked at video. But it's all right here. It's crazy how this game takes over. Sometimes you change your approach because of the way they're pitching you. You just screw yourself up. You're going to miss the pitch that you hit. You're not going to hit everything. Nobody hits everything. Unless you're Albert Pujols."

The cure, at least last night, was an at-bat Francona called gorgeous. Sox starter Curt Schilling called the at-bat phenomenal. Finally, Ortiz had discovered some confidence.

But after the game, Ortiz, who said Tuesday that he felt 100 miles away from where he needed to be, still said his swing felt out of place. In the three at-bats following his home run, Ortiz failed to thump the ball as hard as he did in the first inning. But Ortiz, facing a different version of the shift he saw recently against Toronto and Baltimore, dropped in three singles.

In the third, he lifted a first-pitch single just to the right of second base, a ball that might have been snared by the shortstop in the traditional Ortiz shift.

In the fifth inning, Ortiz muscled a 2-and-2 pitch into right field, a ball that fell short of second baseman Robinson Cano. And in the seventh, facing Mike Myers and flailing wildly at one of the sidewinder's slow-pitch offerings, Ortiz recorded his strangest single of the night. The ball landed in short right field, where Cano, charging quickly, scooped the ball and threw to first. Ortiz just beat Cano's throw.

''Hitting's just crazy," said Ortiz, amending two previous utterances where he called the art by more naughty names. ''You can take a perfect swing and it goes right at somebody."

In the first inning, Ortiz took a perfect swing and rendered the shift irrelevant. He beat New York's defense in his next three at-bats, but the designated hitter still acknowledged the shift -- not just the Yankees' but the formations of other opponents -- has altered his swing.

''Let's not talk about that," Ortiz said. ''That shift got me."