Ortiz hits 499th homer as Red Sox face Rays

Red Sox’ David Ortiz, right, hugging teammate Pablo Sandoval after hitting his 500th home run. Only once did he make Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects, topping out as the 84th-best youngster in 1998. The Red Sox gave the young man wearing a Baltimore Orioles shirt what Ortiz called a very nice package of items including a Red Sox shirt.

Just like your first kiss, you’ll always remember your first dinger. Ortiz would also take Moore deep for number 500. He opened the 2003 season as a bench player for Boston, bouncing between DH and first base and pinch-hitting duty, getting off to a slow start at the plate and entering June with just two home runs on the season.

Imagine you’re a Red Sox fan in 2003. Plainly, Ortiz is among the greatest designated hitters ever.

The teams will attempt to play two games on Sunday. The debate on how tainted Ortiz seems to be could go on forever. His 500 homers is just the icing on his cake of a career. “I’ll be the first one who knows when my time is up, but I’m not there yet”.

In the midst of a 17-game hitting streak, Betts is batting.360 with five homers and 21 RBIs in his last 26 games.

Red Sox: INF Brock Holt (upper back spasms) missed his second straight game. The four RBI for Ortiz gave him 95 total on the season. In Smyly’s last start on Monday, he went five innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits – including a pair of two-run home runs – and leaving with a no-decision against his former club, the Tigers.

The team wouldn’t have to wait long in 2004.

Despite yielding a two-out single to left fielder Grady Sizemore, Ross was able to escape from the bottom half of the stanza unscathed, sealing the win for the Red Sox.

And Sunday’s start, where he pitched seven innings of scoreless one-hit ball while striking out 10.

The Red Sox won the game against the Rays, 10-4. Andrus stole home to cap the Rangers’ four-run seventh. That was worth.899 WPA (Winning Percentage Added).

Lovullo has announced that Ortiz will not play in the series-finale against the Rays, giving him plenty of time to celebrate the accomplishment. Let’s face it, he’d be put in for his bat, but it’s not like he was a poor first baseman either.

The historic home run was Ortiz’s second homer of the night after belting a three-run blast in the third inning. Sox 7-0.

While a good portion of Ortiz’s career came before 2006, when comprehensive home run distance data became readily available, Ortiz’s longest shot since then was this 482-foot dinger off Masahiro Tanaka. Barring a career-ending catastrophe of some kind, Papi should overtake Yaz sometime in early 2016, but his chances of becoming Boston’s all-time dinger king are much, much slimmer. He joins Jimmie Foxx (1940), Ted Williams (1960) and Manny Ramirez (2008), who also hit their 500th home run on the road.