How Will David Ortiz Rebound From Latest Round of Questioning?

BOSTON — When David Ortiz was asked how he felt about being dropped in the Red Sox lineup last May, he flashed humor and humility by telling eager reporters to simply write, “Papi stinks.”

Roughly two weeks later, he began a binge which saw him hit 27 home runs in the final four months of the season.

When he was asked in mid-March what it meant to be 1-for-19 in spring training, Ortiz uttered the following line, a degree more defensive:

“I’ve been in 14 spring trainings and nobody has ever asked me about my spring training numbers.”

Ortiz homered the next day and batted .302 over the remainder of the Grapefruit League games.

After an 0-for-4 performance in Tuesday’s 6-4 loss to the Yankees at Fenway Park, the slugger uttered words not fit for print. Ortiz is known to spice up the language even in the happiest of times, but it would be a stretch to say he was not bothered to some degree by being asked about seven hitless at-bats.

The Red Sox designated hitter has progressively had sharper reactions each time he is asked about a slump.

How he performs in the wake of the latest grand inquisition depends on his manager doing two things. Terry Francona first must exercise patience, a task he has excelled at over the years. Second, he has to ignore what may go down as the quickest case of second-guessing in baseball history.

“It feels early to be talking about it,” Francona said hours before Wednesday night’s meeting with New York when asked a string of questions regarding Ortiz and whether he should sit against lefties. “That’s why I wouldn’t want to wake up and turn on the radio. Not trying to be disrespectful, but my goodness, it’s the third game of the year.”

Ortiz is in the lineup again on Wednesday, this time against Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte. While the Boston slugger has hit .212 (58-for-273) with just 11 home runs against southpaws dating back to the beginning of the 2008 season, he is 18-for-49 (.367) lifetime against Pettitte.

In addition to not wanting to send a strong message so early in the season (it’s April 7, people) by benching Ortiz in favor of Mike Lowell, Francona insists that Ortiz’s issues with lefties are important to work through.

“David had 99 RBIs last year,” Francona said. “If you didn’t play him against certain lefties he wouldn’t have those numbers against the righties. Facing left-handers, at times you have to do that. It keeps them on the ball. You get in some awfully bad habits just playing against right-handers. It’s a little deeper than just what people are looking at.”

With that last line, Francona implied that the ugly numbers against lefties are not so cut and dry. And the fact that, in Lowell, the skipper has a viable option to replace Ortiz is not a factor. Not yet, anyway. The Ortiz “situation” is far too fresh to be treated in such a rash manner.

“[Wednesday] would’ve been a good night to play Lowell,” Francona admitted. “It would’ve been a bad night not to play David.”

Ortiz went 9-for-48 (.188) with a home run to start his Red Sox career in 2003. He had an 0-for-18 stretch in 2004. He hit .194 over a long stretch in 2006 and approached midseason still hitting in the .250s. In 2007, when Ortiz hit .332, he opened with three hits in 19 at-bats. We all winced through the first two months of 2009 before the power stroke returned.

The big guy is no stranger to slumps. And while Ortiz acted on Tuesday night like he was a bit new to this whole question-and-answer thing, he is right to ask others to reserve judgment. His manager is making the right move in doing so.

For now.