But last night, there was nowhere to hide. The Bruins and Celtics had cleaned out their lockers, and the Red Sox were back home from the West Coast, and we all returned to Fenway to find out what in the name of Norm Zauchin is going on with Ortiz.
The Big Fella wasn't talking before the game. Seconds after the clubhouse opened at 3:40 p.m., WBZ's Alice Cook took the charge and was politely told, "I'll get you guys a week from now. Let me get hot."
Happily for Ortiz, his name was on the lineup card. He was back in after his three-game, clear-your-head benching in Seattle. But it didn't go well. The Sox beat the Jays, 2-1, but Ortiz went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, dropping his average to .203.
Approached after the game, Ortiz was asked if he was going to be all right. "I'll be all right," he said. And that was that.
We hadn't seen Ortiz at home plate since that fateful Thursday afternoon in Anaheim when he went 0 for 7 against the Angels, leaving 12 men on base and striking out three times. That was just a few hours before the Bruins lost Game 7 at the Garden and the Celtics blew a chance to dust off the Magic in Game 6 in Orlando. Boston sports's Black Thursday.
Sending Ortiz to the pine in Seattle was not done lightly by Terry Francona. The Sox manager loves his veteran players the way you love your children. If Mike Timlin stopped by the Sox clubhouse to say hello tonight, Tito would probably let him pitch the eighth inning. Remember how Francona stuck with Mark Bellhorn and Coco Crisp?
Ortiz's epic slump puts Francona in a bind. The manager will do anything to avoid embarrassing one of his "guys," but he knows there comes a point where it's dragging down the entire team. It's awkward for everybody. That's why this week is so crucial to Ortiz and the Red Sox.
We have reached the critical mass. If Ortiz doesn't return to some semblance of his old self soon, the Sox are going to have to move him out of the No. 3 spot (and perhaps out of the lineup altogether), which is the last thing they want to do.
"If I said I hadn't thought about the lineup, that's not true," Francona acknowledged. "But I think our best lineup is with him hitting third. And I told him, 'If I ever decide to change that, I'll tell you first.'
