ShareThisBOSTON - One night, the boos cascaded down on David Ortiz's head as he failed again and again in big situations. The next, he was getting a standing ovation after clubbing a home run over the Green Monster.
The Fenway Park crowd has no idea what to make of the Boston Red Sox veteran DH and Ortiz can't seem to figure out who he is yet, either. With every 0-for-4 he has, he seems only a few days from heading to the bench permanently. Every time he hits a home run or drives a ball, his stay of execution is extended, and it stokes hopes that this is the beginning of a bona-fide hot streak.
Yet the Red Sox can't afford to wait forever for Ortiz to figure out whether he's going to be good or miserable. The way this team is constructed, inconsistent mediocrity is not enough. Ortiz must be good, most of the time, or he may be gone.
He's already a platoon player, starting only against right-handed pitching. Tuesday against the Angels, Ortiz was feeble or worse in big situations, and to watch him take his slow, sad, lumbering walks back to the dugout after failing was heart-wrenching.
Then Wednesday night against Joel Pineiro, Ortiz drove a hard single, hit an opposite-field home run, and walked in his first three at-bats. Thursday, he'll sit, with lefty Scott Kazmir pitching.
There's the rub: sooner rather than later, it may be impossible for the Red Sox to keep carrying a one-dimensional player who can't run, can't field, and can be used only against pitchers coming from one side, regardless of his storied history with Boston. Carrying a platoon DH is extremely limiting for the team, roster-wise. If not for the presence of play-anywhere utility man Bill Hall, the Red Sox wouldn't be able to make this work; they're only partly making it work now.
Ortiz was once a clubhouse leader; now, the jovial, rollicking Ortiz of old has been absent this season. He sits at his locker, headphones plugged in, face buried in his computer. He's been working hard to make things right, showing up for extra hitting before most games. But if he doesn't deliver consistent production soon, the possibility that Boston may have to cut ties with the 2004 postseason hero looms larger.
Last year, the Sox gave Ortiz a long leash, and he responded with a miraculous recovery. It probably won't be as long this year. The Red Sox have a viable alternative waiting in the wings in the popular Mike Lowell, Ortiz's disgruntled platoon-mate who can hit both lefties and righties. He wants more playing time, and the crowd erupts whenever he replaces Ortiz.
That's not the only issue at play. The longer this situation drags on, the more of a distraction it becomes for the rest of the team.
Manager Terry Francona is doing his best to be fair to Ortiz, to give him room and time to succeed, and to keep the Ortiz issue from dragging down the rest of the club.
There's little denying that Ortiz' struggles have made this a difficult time for his teammates and his manager, who must answer questions every day about whether Lowell or Ortiz will start on a given night.
"I get asked every day and I would prefer to talk about other things, because if we're talking about it, that probably means it's not going the way we'd like it to," Francona said. "If it is a distraction, we have to figure out a way for it not to be."
It's hard to keep the faith, however, when Ortiz has one of his uglier nights.
Tuesday, he left seven runners on base, striking out twice and grounding into double plays in two key situations, as his average fell to .149 by the end of the night.
The players have rallied around Ortiz, as they are supposed to do. After Tuesday's game, Dustin Pedroia gave a particularly impassioned defense.
"David's fine. He's one of our teammates," Pedroia said. "It could have been me that hit into a double play. It happens to everybody, man. He's had 60 at-bats. A couple of years ago, I had 60 at-bats I was hitting .170 and everybody was ready to kill me, too. And what happened? Laser show."
But Ortiz has looked like a shell of his former self at the plate.
He's not catching up to the best fastballs, and as he cheats to be ready for them, he can be beaten with breaking balls. His batting eye is undiminished, as evidenced by his eight walks and .250-range on-base percentage. His 25 strikeouts are among league leaders despite having two-thirds of the at-bats of most players.
In big moments, he has been a drain on the lineup, killing rallies before they start. The power is there -- He hit a pair of home runs this weekend, and he then added his opposite-field home run Wednesday night.
But they were on unimpressive pitches, and one of the Oriole pitchers who threw one of his weekend blasts was sent to the minors this week.
GM Theo Epstein has, in the past, shown a clear willingness to cut ties with big-name players when they become a distraction or fail to perform. Remember the departures of Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez?
It's unlikely that any club would want Ortiz in trade, unless Boston picked up nearly all of what remains of his $12.5-million salary. As hard as it would be to swallow the outright release of a 2004 World Series hero, this is a $170-million team that is struggling to stay in the middle of the pack, and it needs both flexibility and production out of every roster spot. If Ortiz, who turns 35 later this year, can't provide that anymore, there's a good chance he could be gone soon.
(Contact Daniel Barbarisi at dbarbarisi(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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