ATLANTA--It was one of those just-between-slugger moments: David Ortiz huddling with Barry Bonds when the Giants visited Fenway Park last weekend.
"One of the things he told me," Ortiz said, "is that once you hit 50 home runs, forget about it. You're not going to see any pitches the next year."
On this date a year ago, Ortiz had 20 home runs. He would have six more by the end of the month, en route to breaking Jimmie Foxx's club record with 54, two more than Double-X.
Last night, when he connected off Braves starter Tim Hudson with an opposite-field home run in the fourth inning, which gave Josh Beckett (10-1) a lead he would not relinquish in a 4-0 win over the Braves, it was Ortiz's 12th of the season. He has hit home runs in back-to-back games just once this season, back in April against the Angels. He has had only one two-homer game, April 8 in Texas.
"That's just the way it is going to be," Ortiz said. "The same thing happened with Barry. Barry doesn't miss pitches."
Ortiz, restored to the starting lineup after pinch hitting in Monday's 9-4 loss, has pretty much resigned himself to this new world order, though he still harbors hopes that when Manny Ramírez goes on a power tear, and the weather warms up, his selection of pitches to pound into oblivion will improve.
"I don't get to go deep much," he cracked after the game, before hustling to catch a bus that he claimed was about to leave him behind.
His was the only ball to leave the premises, on a night that Beckett became the American League's second 10-game winner by limiting the Braves to a double and three singles before the rains came, a 48-minute delay ending his outing after six innings. He did not leave before another how-can-I-top-myself-this-time catch by center fielder Coco Crisp, who took extra bases away from Hudson by going airborne after a long sprint in the fifth.
"Oh man," Beckett said. "I've told him this before, that that was the greatest catch I've ever had behind me. I told him that tonight. I think that's about three or four times I've told him that. I guess I've got to go back and look at all of 'em and figure out which one is the greatest catch.
"I try to explain it to some of the other guys. It's so much different, seeing that from my angle and with my adrenaline. Because I'm extremely into that play. Whenever you see somebody go after a ball like that, he's playing in the other gap -- right away you think there's no way, then he starts closing the distance and leaves his feet, it's an unbelievable catch.
