John W. Henry thought he'd said everything he wanted to say about David Ortiz once before, under similarly inspiring circumstances. But on second thought . . .
``So," Henry said on a Fenway Park elevator that could not muffle the chants of ``MVP! MVP!" cascading through every nook and cranny of this ancient fossil that in nearly a century has never seen anyone close a show with the flourish Ortiz does, time and again, ``I'm thinking of what to say on the next plaque."
The first plaque, the one presented to Ortiz last September by the Sox owners in a collective spasm of joy, pronounced Ortiz ``The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox."
What can possibly be added to that after Ortiz delivered another you-can't-be-serious, he-did-it-again??!!! walkoff home run, a three-run laser into the center-field seats that lifted the Sox to a 9-8 win over the dazed Cleveland Indians and rewrote more pages in the annals of wondrous feats by Sox sluggers.
The words of Coco Crisp, a relative newcomer to these universe-shaking big bangs by Big Papi, may not be fit for bronze, but they likely will bring a smile to those in the crowd of 36,387 whose dismay at an impending Sox defeat was transformed to delirium by Ortiz.
``You know how they say that it ain't over till the fat lady sings?" Crisp said. ``Here, it ain't over till the big man swings."
Ortiz's game-winner was his second home run of the night, his major league-leading 37th of the season, and his 14th in the month, the most ever by a Sox player in July. He equaled Jackie Jensen's record for most homers by a Sox player in any month (Jensen did it in June 1958). His four RBIs give him 105 for the season, the most any Sox player has had on the eve of August. Ted Williams and Vern Stephens each had 104 RBIs by July 31 in 1950.
The night-transforming home run also came as something of a baptism for a 22-year-old Indians rookie from the Dominican Republic named Fausto Carmona, who had been the closer for all of 11 days and was facing his first save situation. Carmona's first mistake was to give up a single to Alex Cora to lead off the bottom of the ninth with the Sox trailing by two, 8-6.
His second mistake was to walk Kevin Youkilis, putting the tying runs on base. Carmona may have thought he bought himself some time when he induced the next hitter, Mark Loretta, to pop out. Instead, he bought himself a ticket to another Big Papi moment, one that began with Carmona missing the strike zone with his first two offerings, before Ortiz swung and didn't miss.
