Stars of the Sox: David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury & Adrian Gonzalez
Did anyone in his or her right mind expect "Big Papi" to be one of the best hitters in baseball in this stage in his career? Hell no! But we'll take it as he not so quietly hits three-run bomb after three-run bomb as he did in Toronto over the weekend, raising his power numbers to 17 homers and 43 RBIs, and his AVG to .325, which is fourth in the A.L.
.jpg?t=20110614134341 "David Ortiz (Boston Red Sox)")
In his last 12 games, he has hit six of his 17 homers and knocked in an astounding 19 runners, and is hitting both righties and lefties, which was not expected of him.
Ortiz easily could've won back-to-back A.L. Player of the Week awards with these numbers, but speedy outfielder and red hot lead-off man Jacoby Ellsbury became a hitting machine last week and his contributions to Boston's winning ways couldn't go unnoticed. With Carl Crawford and Ortiz before him, Ellsbury became the third consecutive Red Sox player to be named A.L. Player of the Week for this past week of games, after hitting .467 in his last six games and scoring 10 runs, to go along with his current 10-game hitting streak that gets put on the line tonight.
And last but not least is Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, the leader in the A.L. in batting average and major league leader in RBI with 60 in total. If there's anyone hotter than Ortiz right now, it's him, as the slugger has matched former Sox slugger Manny Ramirez's mark of getting RBI in nine straight games. It's really simple. When he drives in runs, the Sox win games.
Gonzalez and Boston will see if they can make it 10 in a row tonight and hold on to first place for the foreseeable future.
Photo credit: Albert Yau/Flickr
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