Valuable
Game 143: September 12, 2005
Red Sox (84-59), 6
Blue Jays (71-72), 5
H: Keith Foulke (1)
BS: Mike Timlin (6)
W: Jonathan Papelbon (1-1)
L: Pete Walker (6-5)
11 innings
3.5 games ahead in the division
1 game winning streak
At some point, one realizes there are no more superlatives to adequately express the wonder occurring before her. You need a new language, an entire grammar, and a gargantuan lexicon to express all that David Ortiz means. In Papilachian, there is no word for “futile,” no word for “choke,” and definitely no word for “lose.”
Ortiz’s homer in the 4th inning was last seen orbiting Jupiter. Inhabitants of the Jovian moons are inured to seeing round-trippers from the Red Sox designated hitter in their neck of the woods, even though they have neither necks nor woods as such.“Oh, grapinusm slamma rongalia,” they say, which translates loosely to “Oh, it’s Ortiz hail again.”
Ortiz’s slugging partner Manny Ramirez hit a bomb as well, his in 6th inning. Ramirez’s homer ricocheted off the top of the restaurant in center field and then went into orbit. NASA plans to deploy a probe to monitor its trajectory sometime in 2007. This inning could have been much more productive were it not for a key play by Jays second baseman Aaron Hill, who robbed Boston of a base hit by ranging to his right to capture Bill Mueller’s skittering grounder. The bases were loaded and reliever Vinnie Chulk was on the verge of chucking up the game.
While the big boys launched balls that could be classified as weapons with intercontinental capabilities, the rest of the lineup played station to station. Gabe Kapler led off the 7th inning with an infield single. Tony Graffanino then bunted for base hit and his tandem mate Edgar Renteria drove in Kapler with a well-placed line drive to slightly right center field. Ortiz drove in Graffanino on a grounder to Shea Hillenbrand who attempted to start a double play. Going hard into second base, Renteria caused his Jays counterpart Russ Adams to throw wildly back to first, where Ortiz found himself safe and sound.
The Red Sox pitching machine in the home half of the 7th inning failed spectacularly. Bronson Arroyo gave up 2 walks and a single to load the bases with no out. Keith Foulke was brought in and promptly yielded an RBI single to Gabe Gross, who perhaps deserved a break given his surname. The change-up artist was able to induce a sacrifice fly and strike out gadfly Frank Catalanotto before he was replaced by Timlin. Perhaps Timlin’s mind was clouded by the intoxicating ambiance of the Rogers Centre, a place where he celebrated two championship titles, for he gave up a scorching 3-run home run to Vernon Wells to tie the game.
Jonthan Papelbon pitched the next 3 innings as if he were the multi-year veteran. He had 1 walk and 1 strikeout, shutting down Toronto for his first major league win.
The home run that Ortiz hit to put Boston ahead in the 11th inning was found in the Himalayas by Sherpa Jamling Tenzing Norgay, son of Tenzing Norgay. Upon finding it, the younger Tengay said that he would just add it to his growing collection of Red Sox moonshots. He expressed concern over the sheer number of balls he has been accruing. “I’m beginning to run out of space, you know.”
