BOSTON - Before David Ortiz gave Mike Napoli a jumping high-five at home plate, and before Napoli skied a two-run home run into the first row of the Monster seats, David Ortiz worked a walk.
It does not sound very exotic. It does not sound very Ortiz-like. Usually it's Ortiz that comes up with the big hit in some way, shape, or form.
And he almost did - one of seven foul balls that Ortiz hit in the 7th-inning at-bat prior to Napoli's came inches from being fair off the wall in left field.
But it was foul, and Ortiz had to take the slow walk back from in-between first and second base and step back in the batters box with two outs against the lefty Jake McGee.
"You just have to keep on fighting," Ortiz said. "Keep up with the fight.
With the count even, Ortiz eventually drew the walk after 11 total pitches. Napoli cashed in six pitches later.
"Two fantastic at-bats in the 7th inning," John Farrell said. "David with an extended at-bat, he just misses the double, able to work out the walk against a probably a premium left-hand reliever. And Nap seemingly tomahawks a pitch that was just enough to get out of here.""
Napoli, who got a nice view of the at-bat from the on-deck circle, said Ortiz "grinded out" the at-bat. That's a good way of putting it.
One thing we can all agree on - Ortiz included - is that he probably would not have had success in the same at-bat a couple months earlier. Ortiz batted just 9-for-79 (.114) against lefties through June 30. It got so bad early on that some thought he should be benched vs. lefties, or at least moved down the order. But July has been completely different, as Ortiz has hit 11-for-29 (.379) with three home runs against lefties. Those numbers didn't change Friday night, but the 11-pitch walk is just as much proof that he's figured it out.
"I'm seeing the ball better now," Ortiz said. "I'm not trying to pull the ball much. In the beginning of the season, in my mind velocity was an issue. Just seeing a left-handed pitcher how he increases his velocity and pretty much all of them start behind you. So pretty much in your head you feel like you got to shift it to hit it. When they see you doing that they go opposite direction. At some point I was like, you know what, just going try to trust my hands and let things happen like I used to do, and I'm back."
Ortiz told Farrell something similar about his pulling off the ball against lefties. Not right now, though.
"He's using the whole field better," Farrell said. "Against lefties you see him letting the ball travel a little bit more deep in the zone and that was the case particularly in the bat, you see the bat down the left-field line and it just allows him to see the ball longer through the strike zone from lefties."
Though Ortiz has had recent success against lefties, he said after Friday's game that they're "better than ever" and most are throwing 95 mph or faster. It's the way in which the ball comes out of their hands - "behind" Ortiz - that was messing with him. He's feeling more comfortable facing them now, and that's something that could only happen with more in-game at-bats.
"The more at-bat you see [the easier it is to fix]. We got to the point where we were facing lefties more often so I kind of got into that rhythm and kind of helped me out," Ortiz said.