Papi rides the pine

The Red Sox lost to the Mariners last night after a poor start by Jon Lester but that isn’t really the main story as the game was important as it saw the benching of the man formerly known as Big Papi. David Ortiz is hitting .208/.318/.300 with zero home runs through the season’s first thirty-four games.

The Sox have some issues in the rotation and in the line-up which have largely been ignored since the team was still managing to win behind the play of Jason Bay and the bullpen, which has been as good as advertised but you can’t ignore serious failings forever and as much as it pains me to say it, Papi looks done.

In watching Ortiz hit this season, he’s been late on virtually every pitch and has looked awful in trying to turn on any pitch inside, previously a staple of his success at the plate. We can but hope that this is not the end but he fits the profile for players who don’t age well and we could be seeing the end of an era for Red Sox baseball.

Sure it’s too early to write the man’s obituary but his performance slipped last year through his wrist injuries and has dropped off the cliff this season; all the signs point to the final stages of a great career which saw some incredible feats achieved, both personally and for the team in the form of two championships. Such an end would be horrifically saddening to see for a fan who came to love baseball about the time Big Papi made his first marks on Red Sox lore in 2003.

Still, there’s plenty of games to go and if anyone deserves some leeway, surely it’s Big Papi?