Red Sox slugger David Ortiz's season is likely over
David Ortiz may be placed on disabled list again. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Red Sox slugger and free agent-to-be David Ortiz's season is likely over.
Ortiz, who was returned to action Friday after missing 35 games with an Achilles injury, is likely to go back on the disabled list today. The 36-year-old had two hits in Friday's 4-3 win over Kansas City, but re-aggravated the injury legging out a double in the third inning. He's hitting .318 with 23 home runs and 60 RBIs this season.
The Boston Herald's Mark Daniels reports some pessimistic comments from Ortiz and manager Bobby Valentine:
“We’re talking about (shutting it down) because I just can’t really play like this. I don’t want to be thinking about my foot while I’m facing the opposition, which is what happened to me after I hit that double the other night,” Ortiz said. “My last two at-bats, instead of just focusing on seeing the ball and hitting, I’m thinking about how much is it going to react once I take off running. We’re talking to the doctors and we’re going to have some decisions . . . or whatever just to see how we’re going to approach this.”
Manager Bobby Valentine added, “We’ll probably figure out where we’re going with that. It’s likely, if he doesn’t have a real miraculous recovery . . . we’ll have a DL situation (today).”
Even though the Red Sox are a long-shot to make the playoffs, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal reports that Ortiz would like to keep playing:
“I like to play. When I’m good, I like to play, no matter what the situation is,” Ortiz said. “It’s not the first time we are out of contention, and me shutting it down for any particular reason — I like to play, I like to be on the field, I know the fans like to come and watch me play, so it’s our job when we are healthy to be on the field, no question. Like I said, there’s nothing I’d like to do more than be on the field. I enjoy that, but got to be healthy for that.”
Ortiz is the only remaining player from the Red Sox' 2004 World Series championship, and the team's only 2012 All-Star representative. This season he became the 49th player in history with 400 homers.
