A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
David Ortiz overpowers White Sox pitchers

August 12, 2005 ... Tonight, in the eighth inning of the Red Sox' entertaining and emotional 9-8 win over the White Sox, it was David Ortiz's turn vs. Bobby Jenks. Ortiz never let Jenks get to that hook. The first pitch came in at 98. The second was a near carbon copy. The third reached the strike zone at 96 and left the yard even quicker, struck by a thunderous Ortiz swing that supplied his second homer in as many innings, this a three-run blast to dead center that upped the Sox lead to 9-5 before a pulsating gathering of 35,132, the 200th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park.

At the time it was merely decorative, a nice tack-on that followed Ortiz's tie-breaking solo homer an inning earlier off Chicago starter and Cy Young contender Mark Buehrle. But, when Curt Schilling surrendered three runs with two outs in the Chicago ninth on two Monster-clearing blasts a solo shot by Tadahito Iguchi and a two-run laser by Paul Konerko Ortiz's eighth-inning homer proved the game-winner.

And, so is the baseball the Red Sox are playing. The win? The club's fifth straight. They've scored 52 runs in those games. The home win? The team's 12th in a row, most since Joe Morgan's 1988 club reeled off 24 consecutive victories. In those 12 games, they're hitting .319 and averaging 8.5 runs per game. At 37-18, the Sox continue to boast the best home record in the American League.

And this one came against the team with baseball's best record 74-39 before last night. The Sox, little more than a .500 team for much of this season, have won 13 of 15 and, at 67-47, have only seven fewer wins than the White Sox. They've done this, of course, by pounding teams.

David Wells received a no-decision his successor in the seventh inning, Chad Bradford, picked up the win but the lefthander did pitch 6 2/3 innings and has lost just once in his last 15 starts

Manny Ramirez dropped a fading Konerko liner in the first for what would have been the third out. Aaron Rowand then tripled to center Johnny Damon got a bad read on the ball and it cleared him for two unearned runs. In the second, with two on and two out and two strikes on Iguchi, Wells hit the Chicago second baseman on his right arm. Carl Everett then followed with a two-run double for a 4-0 Chicago lead. Everett, who at 34 is no dinosaur, later homered to lead off the fifth with a purely Sheffieldian liner that came to a screaming halt deep in the Monster seats. That rocket, Everett's 17th, upped Chicago's lead to 5-3.

But Varitek would erase that two-run lead in the bottom half with as majestic a blast as you'll see by a right-handed Sox hitter not named Ramirez. Varitek, with Ortiz aboard, sat on a 1-and-0 Buehrle changeup and split the uprights (over the signage and between the light towers) in left.

Varitek's powerful stroke underscored an emerging theme: the Red Sox crush left-handed pitching. Last night marked the Sox' 20th win vs. a left-handed starter, which tied the White Sox for the second most in the AL. Boston went into last night third in the majors in batting average vs. lefties at .287, and that is largely thanks to Varitek (.369 vs. lefties going into last night), Damon (.351), and Edgar Renteria (.341). All three ranked in the top seven in the AL entering last night in batting average vs. left-handed pitchers Varitek third, Damon fourth, and Renteria seventh. Ortiz, meanwhile, has a better average vs. lefties (.305) than righties (.293).

All he had to look to for validation of that was his staff ace. In two games this season vs. Boston, Buehrle has this unbecoming line: 0-1 (with one no-decision), 13 innings, 22 hits, 11 runs, 9 earned runs, 5 walks, 3 strikeouts. Buehrle went into last night 13- 4 with a 2.79 ERA, though that jumped to 2.99. He surrendered Ortiz's first homer in the seventh but gave way to the bullpen and Jenks, whom Ortiz connected off of for his fifth multihomer game of the season. His six RBIs established a career high. Not a bad night.

Johnny Damon made a memorable snow-cone catch of a Scott Podsednik fly ball to the wall in center in the fourth. Damon looked behind him, thinking the ball had bounced off his glove, only to find that he had indeed snared it. Damon also stretched his hitting streak to 15 games with an infield single in the sixth.