The Red Sox are pondering dropping struggling David Ortiz out of the No. 3 spot in the batting order, and it's time. Terry Francona has been immensely patient with Ortiz. But even though he hit his first home run of the season two days after getting a three-day sabbatical on the West Coast, it's clear he's unable to deliver in that key spot in the order.
Reports out of Boston were that Ortiz might be demoted to the bottom half of the lineup tomorrow afternoon when the Red Sox begin a road trip in Minnesota.
This afternoon's performance in which Ortiz stranded eight more runners -- four of them in scoring position -- while going 0-for-5 wasn't as bad as that extra-inning game in Anaheim on the last trip when he left a staggering 12 runners on base. The Red Sox lost that game but overcame their DH's lack of production today to come from behind and beat the Mets 12-5.
But Francona can no longer blind himself to the huge void in the heart of the Red Sox' batting order.
Ortiz is now hitting .195 overall and .209 with runners in scoring position. Going into today's game the rest of the Red Sox were collectively hitting .285 with runners in scoring position, topped among the regulars by Kevin Youkilis at .400, Dustin Pedroia at .375, and Jason Bay at .326.
Those three batters bracket Ortiz in the lineup. So, as incongruous as it sounds, it's really no surprise that teams are now pitching around the little mighty mite Pedroia and going right after the gasping giant, Ortiz. Pedroia walked three times in today's game.
Bay (45), Mike Lowell (32), Youkilis (26), J.D. Drew (21), and Jason Varitek (20) all have more RBI than Ortiz's 18. And considering that all of them bat behind Ortiz and his woeful .301 on-base percentage, their RBI totals are even more impressive.
They are all on a 75-RBI pace or better for the season, and Ortiz has scored only 15 runs in 40 games.
Benching Ortiz for an extended period really isn't an option. There's no one else on the 25-man roster capable of giving the Red Sox anything more offensively.
It's really hard to blame Francona for not dropping Ortiz down sooner. But Francona is certainly aware of the unwritten rule of baseball that there's nowhere to hide a slumping hitter.
Wherever you bat him in the lineup -- cleanup, ninth, sixth, or second -- it's a given that he's going to come to the plate in a crucial situation with runners on base.