Nor did he make any excuses for the Sox scoring just two runs on a night made for hitting with the wind blowing out to left field, and a night when Boston starter Bronson Arroyo picked the worst time for his only stinker of the month. The Sox were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and couldn't solve the finesse of lefthander Ted Lilly.
''We have to keep fighting," Ortiz said. ''It's hard against a guy like that who's pitched so well against us. Guys like that you want to stay close and score some runs and fight back."
But they did none of the above.
Yet there was a resolve in Ortiz, and in Johnny Damon, that seemed to indicate the Sox would rise again.
''We're fine, we're doing OK," said Ortiz. ''We were trying to change the way we act around here when we lose so we got a little bit of music going and we'll come back tomorrow hungry and play the game the way we're supposed to. One of the veterans told me, 'Hey, play some music man.' "
A return to the loose approach that worked so well for the Sox a year ago.
Still, the question remained, why did Ortiz bunt with Edgar Renteria on first and one out in the seventh and the Sox trailing, 7-2?
''If I hit a homer it don't matter," he said. ''We're still going to be down by a whole bunch of runs so I was thinking, they had the [third base] space open [as a result of the Ortiz shift]. I was trying to at least get on base. And we had Manny coming up. And if Manny hits a homer, now we're closer. My mind right there was to try to get on base one way or another especially against this guy whose been making good pitches against us. I'm not the kind of guy who's out there just looking at my numbers. It's a team situation and I always want to prove the best I can for our ball club."
Damon offered, ''I would never question anything David did. He's an MVP. I like that situation with Manny coming up."
The move was also endorsed by manager Terry Francona, who said Ortiz's thought process was correct.
