''When he hit it," Torre added, ''I felt pretty cocky that anything hit into the wind tonight would come back into the park."
But of all of the mystic elements at play, none were greater than Ortiz's bat. With a thunderous swing, he launched the ball into the Boston night, not to come down until it landed in the glove of Jonathan Papelbon, who was warming up in the bullpen.
Papelbon hurled it halfway up the bleachers, a proper exclamation point to a 7-3 Sox win before 36,339 in the first of 19 regular-season meetings between these teams.
It was an exhausting day and game, emotionally more than physically. At 3:30 p.m., a lineup was posted with Doug Mirabelli, acquired yesterday from the Padres, catching. By 3:45, Jason Varitek's name was in the lineup instead. Mirabelli's charter landed at Logan at 6:48, and his police escort arrived at the ballpark at 7, giving Mirabelli 12 minutes to collect his thoughts and get into uniform.
At 7:01, a lineup change was announced. Mirabelli would start and bat eighth. Varitek, meanwhile, had been warming up Tim Wakefield in the bullpen.
''That's as uncomfortable as I've been, the most anxiety I've had going into a game since I've been here," said Sox manager Terry Francona.
General manager Theo Epstein had said the first pitch would be at 7:09 p.m. Somehow, it wasn't tossed until 7:13, and that wasn't because the game was on ESPN. (A high-ranking ESPN employee was wondering himself why the game didn't begin on time.)
At about 7:12, Mirabelli was behind the plate, catching Wakefield offerings. Two skipped away in warmups.
''I was like, 'Here we go,' " Mirabelli said. ''I don't think I've ever been that nervous in my career. Ever."
And then Johnny Damon walked by.
''That kind of snuck up on me," Mirabelli said. ''I hadn't really thought about the Johnny situation until he walked by. He said, 'Welcome back.' "
As the game wore on, it became evident that fly balls stood next to no chance. On a normal day, Jason Giambi's first-inning blast to center and Derek Jeter's sixth-inning shot to left center would not have been caught.
