September 06, 2007
Power Return
David Ortiz homered for the Red Sox tonight, a solo shot to tie the game at six. In 48 games since the All-Star break, Big Papi has hit 13 home runs and driven in 44. That compares to 14 home runs and 52 RBI in 91 games before the break. He was slugging well in the first half due to lots of doubles, but now he's adding the homers as well and his slugging percentage is up about 50 points in the second half.
The score remains six-all in the bottom of the sixth. Buchholz is in and walked the first batter he faced. We'll see how long he goes before allowing a hit.
Update: That didn't take long. Tyke Redman, the second batter in the inning picks up the safety.
Update: I forgot to mention that with the score tied and Wakefield out, he'll pick up his first no decision of the season.
Correction: I misread the line score. Papi's home run tied the game. I've modified the post to reflect that.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:04 PM
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Sluggers
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Back when you first wrote about Papi's so-called power outage, I noted that home-runs were down across mlb.
Have they picked up across the league in the 2nd half, or is this pure Papi? I suspect the former, given how my boys Cano and Abreu have hammered the ball in the 2nd half.
Yes, power is up in the second half. August was the best home run of the season, and so far September produced the highest slugging percentage.
Not that it really matters, since the Sox won, but Papi's homer tied the game after the O's just took the lead.
I was at this game & the real game factor was the O's starting pitcher freezing twice with a come-backer, once he had Sox runner dead to rights btwn 2 & 3 and then on next play to pitcher he had Sox runner dead btwn 3 & home and both times he turned and threw to 1st and both hung up Sox runners scored gift first two runs of game. Whatever happened to old "Orioles Way" of training/developing players. It is a myth now.