Low Point for Big Papi

The Red Sox just won a heartbreaking loss to the Angels, 5-4, in the 12th, but, somehow, it does not feel like the worst part of this loss.
Here it is: The Sox left 17 men on base --and David Ortiz left 12 of those runners on all by himself. That, unfortunately, tells the story of how far Ortiz still is from being himself at the plate. Ortiz has been the most clutch guy on the team for most of the past six years; yet, now, he's performing like a bad 9th hitter in the lineup.

I am not one who goes with the pack on matters like Ortiz' slump, but, it's not his slump alone that concerns me. It is HOW he looks at the plate. He's made little or no progress since the start of the season. Yeah, he's had a few good at-bats, and, at times, he looks a bit better than others. Lately, he's looked a bit better than a few weeks ago, but............

But --- he still cannot hit a simple fastball. David Ortiz cannot hit a fastball? Yes, on occasion, he hits flyballs to the deeper part of the outfield, but, even when he does that, his swing does not look the same to me. His swing is not as quick. It does not have the same "snap" to it. You can really notice it on his swings and misses. When Big Papi was himself, he watched the ball until the last split second - the same way all the best hitters do (Jeter, Youkilis, etc) Now, he starts his swing a tiny bit early and it screws him up. It's like Tony Masserotti of the Globe said: It's as if he knows his swing is slower. Even when he hits it to the outfield, the ball dies out there because many of them haven't been on a line - and hard enough - to drop in.

Well, I stand on what I said several blogs ago: If Ortiz's woes continued until the later part of May, it'd be time for Francona to take him out of the lineup -- at a minimum, for several days off to work on his hitting. At maximum, get Ortiz checked out physically or perhaps find a way to put him on the disabled list -- if it can be done legitimately.

I'd give it another week or ten days - and, then, if Ortiz has made no progress, it's time to take action on this. I'm the biggest Ortiz fan out there, but, he has - and is - hurting the team now.
It's time to try new responses (rest) and make absolutely sure that he is completely healthy (especially his wrist, shoulder and any parts of his body he needs to hit well)

As far as the game today, the Sox had a zillion chances to score and failed to get any big hits.
I have to say, however, they were due to lose a game like this - because they've won their share of these close games when they haven't played that well so far.