Monster shot a positive sign

The Fenway Park gun had Sabathia's fastball running at 97 miles per hour last night, and when Ortiz saw one humming at him on the first pitch of his at-bat in the second inning, he immediately decided to take a chop at it.

"CC's a hard ball thrower," Ortiz said. "So you've got to make sure that when he gives you those, you don't miss it."

He didn't miss one bit of it.

Ortiz smacked the fastball hard the other way, launching it over the Green Monster to put the Sox up, 1-0. For the five following frames, his long ball stood as the only offense either team could muster, before the Yankees put up three runs in the seventh only to give three right back in the eighth, and falling, 4-3, to the Red Sox.

For Ortiz, it was his third home run in five games, and after weeks when it seemed his bat might never come out of hibernation, it looked like another sign that he had found some life.

With the fans screaming for him, Ortiz merged from the dugout to take his curtain call almost out of obligation.

"You can tell the fans get a kick out of it," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "I don't think David knows what to do, so you just grab him and get it over with."

To Ortiz, though, the fact that he hit a homer wasn't nearly as important as how he hit it: hard to the opposite field. He had been searching for answers to his slump all year - going to the eye doctor this week to address issues with dry eyes - but the only sure solution is in his swing.

"The biggest thing with David is going the other way sometimes," said Kevin Youkilis. "He gets pull-happy a little bit, but that's great seeing him have an opposite-field home run."

Ortiz went 2 for 3 with a walk, reaching base four times. The only ball he pulled was his seventh-inning single, and he seemed to be rewarded for hitting the ball to left field in the fourth inning when Johnny Damon dropped a routine fly ball.

"When I hit the ball up like that, it's a sign that I'm waiting for the ball good and I'm trying to stay through the ball and not just trying to pull the ball," Ortiz said. "I've been feeling a lot better at the plate."

In this six-game homestand, Ortiz went 7 for 20 with five RBIs. And on a night when Sabathia was dealing (up to the eighth inning), Ortiz seemed to have him solved. The single in the seventh broke a stretch of eighth straight batters retired by Sabathia.

After hitting just .143 in May, Ortiz has hit .269 this month, lifting his average to .203 for the year. The home run gave him four for the season.

"That was a great swing," Dustin Pedroia said. "He's getting better and better each day, and it's a huge sign for us."

The only sign Youkilis needed was the direction. Seeing Ortiz's ball sail to left field got his hopes up.

"For all of us, when you hit the ball the opposite way, you tend to get hot," Youkilis said. "So hopefully he'll get hot in the next few days and carry it on."

Accustomed to seeing Ortiz in the 30-to-50 home run range, Francona joked, "I hope there are like 35 more."

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.