"I thought he was jogging to get loose, but then he didn't go back," said Jacoby Ellsbury, who started the game on the bench, went to right when J.D. Drew hurt his wrist, and wound up in center when Coco Crisp took ill ("I don't feel like talking," Crisp said, closing his eyes as he stretched out on a clubhouse couch. "I'll tell you tomorrow.").
There would be one more unscheduled departure before the Sox lost, 5-4, to the Orioles before 38,768 in Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night. David Ortiz was ejected after plate umpire Laz Diaz ruled that Big Papi did not hold back his swing on a pitch up and in from Orioles closer George Sherrill in the ninth inning.
It was Ortiz's seventh career ejection, fourth with the Red Sox, and first without a clue that he'd been tossed. Play was held up after crew chief Wally Bell, from his position at first base, noted that Ortiz had not vacated the visitors' dugout.
"I said, 'Hey Lazaro, I was just getting out of the way,' " Ortiz said. "I didn't throw the bat, I dropped it. I didn't cuss or anything. I didn't know he threw me out of the game.
"I went to the video - my bat never left my shoulder, but I had to get out of the way."
Ortiz was gone, and moments later everyone else left, too, after Manny Ramírez flied out and Mike Lowell went down swinging.
And while the Sox were left counting healthy bodies - Drew's condition appeared the most worrisome, as he sported a removable splint and talked about some "rotational issues" in the wrist - they also found themselves looking up at the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.
With the Sox losing their third straight game and fourth in five nights, the Rays slipped into first, a half-game ahead of Boston, after beating the Yankees in extra innings for their sixth win in a row.
"Go home," Ramírez good-naturedly urged reporters waiting for Ortiz, even making an effort at herding them away from Ortiz's locker. "We turned the page."
