Ortiz has bounce in his step

David Ortiz stood in the Red Sox clubhouse before yesterday's game and gave his knees a little bounce. He smiled broadly. His right knee, the one that will be surgically repaired in the offseason, felt fine. That was because Ortiz took a cortisone shot Saturday to help him make it through the playoffs.

"I'll tell you what, these past couple of weeks I was hurting really bad," Ortiz said before Boston's 3-2 loss to the Twins in the regular-season finale. "[Saturday] was a day that I talked to the manager, [he] gave me a day off, I had a cortisone shot. I woke up feeling good today. So hopefully it'll stay like that. Because we're in the playoffs and you've got to bring everything you've got."

With two days before the first playoff game - just an optional workout today, after which the Red Sox are expected to name their postseason rotation, and a full workout tomorrow - Ortiz will come into the playoffs with extra rest, not to mention the jolt from the medication. On Aug. 8 Ortiz received a cortisone shot to get through pain in his left shoulder, and he has not complained of a problem with the area since.

Not only does Ortiz appear to be feeling better, he has scorched the ball of late. Before striking out twice and walking yesterday, Ortiz had reached base in 12 of his last 13 plate appearances, with 10 hits and two walks. Over his last four games, he had reached in 15 of 19 trips. He was removed for Doug Mirabelli in the seventh.

"It's huge," Mike Lowell said of Ortiz's recent surge. "He's the one guy that we're going to lean on a lot. It's good when that guy is hot. I think it helps Manny [Ramírez] out. It helps myself. It helps everyone else out down the lineup, that's for sure."

Though he failed to boost his numbers yesterday, Ortiz has 14 home runs and 37 RBIs in his last 33 games, vaulting him from a down season to an assured place on MVP voters' top 10 lists. He finished with career highs in batting average (.332), on-base percentage (.445), doubles (52), and hits (182). He hit 35 home runs and scored 116 runs.

"I can say personally that this might be one of my best offensive years here in Boston," Ortiz said. "Because people just focus on 40, 50 homers. Some guys, they're going to hit 40, 50 homers, but you might see their on-base percentage [at] .350. You might see their batting average [at] .260.

"If I go to the plate, [if] I want to swing for homers every time, I will. I can swing for homers every time I step to the plate. Now let's see the result. What happens if I end up with 60 homers and I end up with .320 on-base percentage and .240 batting average and 70 runs scored. Did I help my team? I think if you look at my numbers this year, I think I put it together even better than some of the seasons that people think I [had] a good offensive season."

Now he's getting healthy at just the right time.

"I am the kind of guy that, even if I'm going through a tough time, I fight back," Ortiz said. "I guess everybody in this town knows me as that kind of player. I would never give up on players like that. I always just wait and see what happens. I told you guys what was going to happen at the end of the season, right?"

He has turned it on. And, more importantly, his knee is better.

But it's not just him, Ramírez and Kevin Youkilis are getting healthier, too. Coco Crisp has come back from a hip injury and viral illness. J.D. Drew has shown the offense for which he was signed.

Everything's looking up. Especially compared to the 2006 regular-season finale, a dreary, wet day on which Devern Hansack threw a rain-shortened no-hitter to finish off a campaign in which the Red Sox limped to the end without hope of a postseason berth.

"I was just thinking about it when I was driving here today," Ortiz said. "Last year at this point we were just packing and thinking about what we were going to do in the offseason. Something that kind of killed me. The time off was so much and so long.

"I mean, when you play for a team like this, you're not planning on doing things until after October, the second week of November. But then you have the whole month of October until the second week of November free. I mean it was just like, man . . . I made my plans early this year. I didn't plan anything until November."