BOSTON: David Ortiz has even run out of ways to talk about his red-hot return. Ortiz had two hits and three RBIs to extend his torrid start after a long layoff, and Felix Doubront overcame a wild first inning to pitch into the seventh as the Boston Red Sox beat the struggling Houston Astros 8-4 yesterday.
“I ain’t talking about that anymore,” said Ortiz, joking with the media as he dressed quickly in front of his locker.
“You make up a new question, I’ll answer it. Otherwise, copy what I said yesterday and the day before.”
The 37-year old Ortiz made quite a return in his first seven games. He is hitting .519 (14 of 27) with two homers and nine RBIs since getting back into the lineup last Saturday after missing the 71 of the final 72 games last season and all of spring training with a heel injury.
“He’s doing things that look to him to be very easy, but its hard to imagine or even script out that he’d have this kind of performance considering the layoff,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
It was 14th win in 19 games for the surging Red Sox (17-7). Boston can tie a club record for the most wins in April by completing a four-game sweep over Houston (7-17) on Sunday.
The Astros, coming off 56 and 55 wins seasons the last two, respectively, in the National League, are finding their new league just as tough.
“I don’t get caught up in the record,” Astros first-year manager Bo Porter said. “I deal with each day, each game, one game at a time.”
Boston matched its best start since 2002 with its fourth straight win.agencies