Big Papi on pace for record
ST. LOUIS - Maybe the St. Louis Cardinals should give David Ortiz the Barry Bonds treatment and just stop pitching to him.
The Red Sox slugger is on a tear in the World Series. He went 3 for 4 with an RBI double on Monday night as Boston won 3-1 to move within one game of its third title since 2004.
Ortiz doubled home Dustin Pedroia in the first, singled in the fourth and singled again in the eighth.
His lone out was a smash to center caught by Shane Robinson.
Ortiz is hitting .733 with two home runs, two doubles and six RBI in the series. The Cardinals have intentionally walked him just once, though they’ve pitched around him for four other walks.
“What planet is that guy from?” Red Sox catcher David Ross asked.
First base was open in the first after Pedroia’s one-out double, but Adam Wainwright went after Ortiz and Big Papi lashed a hit down the right-field line.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said the plan was to make “tough pitches” rather than walk Ortiz.
“And sometimes we get more of the plate than what we’re looking to get,” Matheny said.
“Right there, it was the idea of making it tough. And unfortunately he found the spot.”
Wainwright agreed.
“That was my call before the game,” Wainwright said.
“I said, ‘I’m not pitching around Ortiz today. I’m going to get him out.’”
So much for that idea.
Ortiz is on pace for one of the best World Series hitting performances ever.
Not that his manager is ready to anoint him MVP of the series.
“The one thing we won’t do is get too far ahead of ourselves, whether that’s what we achieve collectively or what any individual’s performance suggests,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “But he’s in a really good place, obviously.”
Billy Hatcher of the Reds hit .750 with an .800 on-base percentage in the Reds’ sweep of the Oakland Athletics in 1990, a performance that included seven straight hits. Both the average and on-base percentage are all-time highs for qualifying World Series players. Ortiz has an on-base percentage of .750 so far in this series.
It isn’t just this October.
In three World Series, Ortiz is hitting .465, best-ever among players with at least 50 plate appearances.
“I was born for this,” Ortiz said with a smile.
Babe Ruth had the second-highest batting average, .625 in 1928, followed by Hideki Matsui’s .615 for the Yankees in 2009.
The Cardinals’ Matt Holliday isn’t putting up Ortiz numbers, but he’s having a strong series, too. He homered for the Cardinals’ lone run in Game 5. He has five RBI in the series and is hitting .286 (6 for 21).
Finding their way
A wealth of young talent is a big reason the Cardinals are in the World Series. But rookie mistakes were critical in Game 4.
The first came in the sixth when groundball specialist Seth Maness took over for starter Lance Lynn with two on and two outs. No grounder this time: Jonny Gomes crushed one into the Boston bullpen for a tiebreaking three-run homer.
Kolten Wong became the first player picked off to end a World Series game. And it came with Carlos Beltran, one of the greatest postseason hitters, representing the tying run at the plate.
Wong said he just wanted to get a good jump. The dejection showed after the game when he was red-eyed in the clubhouse.
Wong also apologized to fans on Twitter: “All i want to say is i’m sorry #CardinalNation,” he wrote.
“I go out everyday playing this game as hard as I can and leaving everything on the field.”
Before Game 5, the Cardinals had put the play behind them.
“Those things happen,” leadoff man Matt Carpenter said. “We are human. We make mistakes. And let’s not make it more than it is.”
The 23-year-old Wong was a first-round pick in 2011 and could be the starting second baseman next year.
His major league career isn’t exactly off to a scintillating start - he hit just .153 in 59 regular-season at-bats.
Manager Mike Matheny said Wong would rebound from the mistake and added, “Yeah, it affected him because he’s human and he cares.”
Wong did not play in Game 5.
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/29/2013