Big Papi’s big bat crushes Jays again
Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 3 Ortiz wins it with two-run wallop off Towers in eighth ‘I just flat-out screwed up,’ says Toronto starter
There was a fleeting moment of satisfaction for Blue Jays pitcher Josh Towers in last night’s eighth inning when his manager paid him the ultimate compliment. Towers had just given up a twoout single to bring red- hot Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz to the plate. The Jays had situational left- hander Scott Schoeneweis ready in the bullpen, but manager John Gibbons decided Towers had earned the right to win or lose by himself. And a deserving Towers got to savour that moment for exactly two pitches before Ortiz buried his third offering over the centrefield fence to swing this series in favour of the visitors.
“ I was surprised a little bit, but at the same time I’ve been pitching pretty well I think,’’ Towers said after Ortiz’s fourth homer of the series, a two-run, tiebreaking blast, handed the Jays a 5- 3 loss in front of 25,865 fans at the Rogers Centre. “ I think I’ve pitched pretty well this year to finally earn that opportunity. I think that Gibby realized it. He had a tough decision, let’s get real. I mean, he had Schoeneweis ready, he had Ortiz, the hottest hitter in baseball, up.
“ He stuck with me, had a little faith,’’ Towers added. “ I knew what he was doing and I screwed up. I just flat- out screwed up.’’
Plenty of pitchers have flat- out screwed up against Ortiz, who has 42 homers, a record 38 coming in the DH spot. Gibbons was so impressed, he opined that: “ If that’s not MVP, I don’t know what is. He’s got my vote.’’ Towers wasn’t as exuberant about Ortiz’s MVP chances as a DH, while conceding the latter is “ a damn good hitter.’’ Told Ortiz had sported a Superman belt after two homers on Monday, Towers quipped: “ If he was Superman, he’d play defence.’’
Perhaps Towers was just being funny, or he was still irked at seeing his 1- 1 pitch, a belt- high fastball, demolished by Ortiz after yielding just one earned run up to then.
In hindsight, Gibbons probably should have gone with Schoeneweis, being paid $2.5 million ( U. S.) this season to retire lefty hitters like Ortiz. His boss, GM J. P. Ricciardi — the guy shelling out those bucks — will almost certainly think so.
Especially since Towers was up to 98 pitches, unlike a few starts ago in New York when Gibbons was questioned for pulling him with a pitch count of just 71 after seven innings. But gestures like this can go a long way in a pitcher’s psyche and in the clubhouse, especially on a 72- 73 team doing little but trying to pad its won- lost mark.
“ He’s had a heckuva year, he really has,’’ Gibbons said of Towers. “ He’s good and he’s proven that over the long run.’’
Ortiz’s homer lifted Red Sox left- hander David Wells to just his second win against the Jays since leaving Toronto after the 2000 season. Wells gave up a run-scoring double to Frank Menechino and a pair of RBI singles to Shea Hillenbrand, both of them scoring Corey Koskie, who had a three- hit night. But with the Red Sox trailing 2- 1 in the fifth, Gabe Kapler reached on a Koskie throwing error and Tony Graffanino lined a pitch over the left- field fence to give Boston the lead.
In the surreal moments that followed, Kapler seemed to slip on the artificial turf after rounding second base in a dead sprint. He wound up rupturing his Achilles tendon and falling flat on his face, forcing a confused Graffanino to stop at second and wait for help to arrive.
Pinch-runner Alejando Machado finally jogged on to the field where Kapler lay and resumed the injured player’s route around the bases, followed by Graffanino. The Jays went on to lose their third game in four tries after the five- minute delay, though Towers certainly earned a moral victory.
“ It just shows the confidence that he has in me,’’ Towers said of Gibbons. “ Especially this late in the year. We’re trying to win and Gibby’s trying to win, but he stuck with me for a reason.’’
Ortiz picks up pitching-poor Sox, Richard Griffin writes. D4