Ortiz steals the show
BOSTON – Johnny Damon stepped to the plate to lead off the game and was booed for 30 seconds by the crowd at Fenway Park.
Somewhere in there, though, were just enough cheers to make him raise his new Yankees helmet.
“I planned on doing it if I heard enough cheering, and I did,” he said.
But the Red Sox fans saved their loudest cheers for David Ortiz, who hit a three-run homer into a strong wind, giving the Red Sox a 7-3 win over the New York Yankees on Monday night and spoiling Damon’s return to Boston.
Damon was booed in each of his other three at-bats and went 0 for 4.
“You know they’re booing a uniform now,” he said. “They don’t boo bad players. They boo good players.”
Damon could only stand and watch from a few feet away as Ortiz’s 11th homer of the season sailed into Boston’s bullpen in right-center field in the eighth.
Mark Loretta, in a 1-for-17 slump, had broken a 3-3 tie with an RBI single earlier in the inning in his first game as part of baseball’s biggest rivalry. The first series of the season between the teams wraps up tonight.
“What an atmosphere,” said Loretta, traded from San Diego in the off-season. “Every game at Fenway Park has been electric, but tonight was extra electric and (there was) a great buzz out there.”
That usually happens when the teams face each other. Throw in Damon’s return after four years as a fan favorite – before he left as a free agent – and the crowd was excited even before the first pitch.
“It was kind of sad,” Boston’s Kevin Youkilis said of the reaction to Damon. “He acknowledged the crowd and they didn’t want any part of it.”
Mike Timlin (3-0) got the win with help from Jonathan Papelbon, who retired the side in order in the ninth with two strikeouts and is unscored upon in 15 1/3 innings this season. Aaron Small (0-1) took the loss. He was 10-0 for the Yankees last year.
It was a bad night for another former Red Sox player. Mike Myers, Boston’s lefty specialist last year, entered the game after the single by Loretta and gave up Ortiz’s drive on a full count.
“You had to hit it good with the wind blowing like 100 mph,” Ortiz said.
Yankees manager Joe Torre marveled at Ortiz’s power.
“If anybody is going to do it, Big Papi is going to find his way through the wind,” Torre said. “I just thought the count was probably the difference. He had to throw a strike.”
Another returning player who had a more pleasant night was Boston catcher Doug Mirabelli, reacquired earlier Monday from San Diego where he had been traded for Loretta last December. Boston obtained him to resume his role as knuckleballer Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher after Josh Bard, who went to the Padres, had 10 passed balls in Wakefield’s four previous starts.
Mirabelli arrived 13 minutes before the game and went 0 for 4 but didn’t have a passed ball and threw out a runner.
Clearing the bases
Pete Rose Jr., the son of baseball’s career hits leader, was sentenced to one month in prison and five months of home detention in Nashville, Tenn., for distributing a drug sometimes sold as a steroid alternative to his minor league teammates. Rose faced up to two years in prison and a $1 million fine for distributing GBL. Federal judge Robert Echols waived a fine for Rose. … Striking minor league umpires rejected a tentative settlement, management’s lawyer said. Umpires have been on strike since the start of the minor league season April 6. … The Chicago Cubs recalled left-hander Rich Hill from Iowa and sent right-hander David Aardsma to the Triple-A team.