Sox must adjust to life without designated hitters

01:29 PM EDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2004

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

Sox firstbasemen David Ortiz, right, and Dave McCarty laugh after a ball gets by Ortiz during practice yesterday. Ortiz played first base sparingly this season, but will be in the starting lineup there tonight as the Red Sox do away with the deisgnated hitter thanks to the game being played in a National League park.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez lays down a bunt during batting practice yesterday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Martinez has a career .094 batting average, but all of his 25 career hits came when he was in the National League before joining the Red Sox in 1998. Since then, he's had no hits in 19 at bats.

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Red Sox back in action for game 3

ST. LOUIS -- The venue has changed, and so have the World Series rules for the Boston Red Sox.

After taking care of business at Fenway Park in the first two games of the 100th World Series, the Red Sox will visit the St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium for at least the next two games, and possibly a third, beginning tonight.

The teams still will be playing baseball, but it will be National League baseball. That means pitchers hitting and double switches. The designated hitter? He doesn't exist in the N.L.

As a result, when the Red Sox take their positions in the field in the bottom of the first inning tonight, not only will Pedro Martinez be on the mound trying to give Boston a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, but David Ortiz will be at first base, replacing Kevin Millar.

It's not as if Ortiz has never worn a first baseman's glove. But with the Red Sox, the lumbering Ortiz has been the DH, and a potent one at that, clouting 41 homers and driving in 139 runs to go along with his .301 batting average in the regular season.

Ortiz, though, has to be in the lineup because, as he has already shown in the postseason, his ability to crush the baseball has been a major factor in Boston sitting only two wins away from its first World Championship since 1918.

Ortiz ended the American League Division Series against Anaheim with a walk-off homer, and his heroics in the Sox' historic comeback from a 3-0 hole against New York won him the MVP honors in the ALCS.

And in the first two World Series games Ortiz has notched four RBI, including a three-run homer. You want that potential offense in as often as possible in a game, and playing first base is the only way Ortiz would be able to have the chance to do it.

While Ortiz says he won't be particularly comfortable at first base, manager Terry Francona, whose Sox won the first two games despite committing four errors in each of them, doesn't expect Ortiz to be a serious liability at the position.

"It's not like we're sending someone out there who can't play," said Francona with a shrug prior to yesterday afternoon's workout at Busch Stadium. "David's played 34 games over there (this year). We just thought that our best team this year was Kevin Millar at first and David as the DH."

For the record, Ortiz last started at first base in the next-to-last game of the regular season. Previous to that, his last start at the position had been on July 22.

"I'm not comfortable there right now. Not at all," said the 6-foot-4, 230-pounder, who has been getting serious work at the position during batting practice for a week or so.

"First base is not a position where you see a lot of action. I just want to go out and try to catch whatever comes to me," said Ortiz. "It's just the situation here, nothing to walk away from. I don't think I'm a bad first baseman. I just haven't had a chance to go out there and play."

When Ortiz was in Minnesota, he chafed a bit at being pushed off the position by Doug Mientkiewicz, who won a Gold Glove. Ortiz came to the Sox as a free agent prior to the 2003 season, hoping to play the position after having had a strong winter ball campaign.

But Ortiz has been basically limited to the DH role. Mientkiewicz, who joined the Sox on July 31, thinks Ortiz will do fine.

"It's not as if we're asking him to run around in center field on defense," said Mientkiewicz. "He's not as bad as everybody makes him out to be. I always said that David had good hands. If he has a problem at times it's a lack of concentration. But in the World Series, that won't be a problem."

One problem for Francona, though, will be when to take out Ortiz to send in Mientkiewicz for defense. When the Sox have had a lead in the latter innings, Mientkiewicz has taken over for Millar. But Ortiz's bat is more consistently potent, so it will be a challenge for Francona to decide when to put in defense for offense.

"There isn't any cut-and-dried scenario," said Francona.

But at least Francona has managed in the land of the double switch, having been the Philadelphia Phillies' skipper for four year. He said yesterday he's ready for the challenge that faces an A.L. team playing in an N.L. park.

"It's a disadvantage for us," said Francona. "We lose our DH and we have guys hitting (pitchers) who aren't used to hitting. We're not playing with the team we put together, so that makes it a disadvantage. It's unfair to Millar because he's been playing, but it's the rules of the game.

"You have situations in the sixth, seventh, eighth innings . . . you might have to take the pitcher out, which we might not be doing (in an A.L. game)," said Francona. "It's nice to have some experience with that."

How well it all plays out for Francona, Ortiz and the rest of the Red Sox, though, remains to be seen. But having a 2-0 cushion heading into the N.L. park doesn't hurt, either.