A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
David Ortiz does it once again

September 14, 2005 ... David Ortiz did it again, this time in the eighth inning, the game tied at 3 with two outs and Bill Mueller, who had singled, aboard. This one, yet another game-winning homer, off Josh Towers, supplied a 5-3 Red Sox victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The slugging designated hitter, who's putting on a September show much like Vladimir Guerrero did last September to win the AL MVP award, has now hit three game-deciding home runs in the last nine days Sept. 6 vs. Los Angeles in the bottom of the ninth, Monday night in the 11th, and last night's blast to center in the eighth. Each came with the game tied. Of his 42 home runs a career high 18 have tied the game or put the Sox ahead. And nine have come in the seventh inning and beyond. His most recent made a winner out of David Wells (13-7, 4.35).

But the win came at a cost. The Sox lost outfielder Gabe Kapler to a ruptured Achilles' tendon that figures to end Kapler's season. That leaves the Sox without a solid fourth outfield option (Kevin Millar, Alejandro Machado, and Adam Stern are the backups). And Kapler's injury comes at an extremely inopportune time, as Johnny Damon hasn't played the field in any of the last five games and is questionable for tonight's opener of a four-game series against the Athletics. Kapler, oddly, injured himself running the bases during Tony Graffanino's fifth-inning homer that gave the Sox a 3-2 lead. The ball barely cleared the wall, and Kapler, who'd reached on an error, motored around second. Just after passing the bag, where dirt meets FieldTurf, Kapler went down, his left leg giving way. Graffanino, in the middle of his home run trot, stopped at second base for what wound up being a five-minute delay. During the delay, Machado emerged from the dugout with a helmet on, walked to Kapler, then began running the final 150 or so feet home, with Graffanino behind him.

Machado was forced to play center field for the second time this season, even though he's played predominantly middle infield in Triple A this season and throughout his lengthy minor-league career. The Sox' only other outfielder available was Stern, though he has been limited to pinch running because of a nagging right shoulder injury. He only began throwing yesterday and isn't yet ready to play in a game.

Wells went into last night just almost impeccable at home (7-1, 3.00 ERA) but not even .500 on the road (5-6, 5.57). He worked his way in and out of danger, allowing two runs in the second and one in the sixth, as the Sox and Jays were tied, 3-3, when he left at the end of seven innings.

The middle of the Jays' lineup, cleanup hitter Corey Koskie and No. 5 hitter Shea Hillenbrand, dominated Wells, going 5 for 6 with four singles, a double, and two RBIs (both by Hillenbrand). However, the damage easily could have been greater. Gregg Zaun twice came up with runners on second and third, both times with one out. In the fourth, he grounded weakly to Bill Mueller and couldn't plate the runner at third. The next hitter, Frank Menechino, then grounded out to end the inning. In the sixth, Zaun grounded to shortstop Alex Cora for an inning-inning double play.

Wells, managing the damage, went seven innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, though he tied a season high by walking two. He fanned one.