For nearly two months now, it has been quieter around the Red Sox, both at the plate and in the clubhouse.
Those are the two places where, in his inimitable way, David Ortiz exudes presence, noise and thunder. When he comes back to play tonight, he will greet his teammates with a fond flurry of expletives and then try to hit the expletive out of the baseball. Fenway Park always erupts when Big Papi is around, but this time it promises to be louder. Gone since May 31, when he took a swing in Baltimore and partially tore a tendon sheath in his left wrist, Ortiz will return to a team that has not fallen to pieces in his absence. They were one game behind the first-place Rays when he got hurt; today they are tied for first. The Sox went 26-19 without Ortiz; they were 34-24 when he got hurt.
Nation Notes: While the Red Sox examined whether to pursue White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe, major league sources indicate the team backed away from a possible deal to acquire him. The Red Sox really like the job done by Jed Lowrie and feel that Alex Cora can be an adequate backup to Lowrie until Julio Lugo returns to the seen sometime in mid-August. That’s not to say the Sox won’t consider another veteran shortstop if the fit and price is right. The Sox are still pursuing relievers. They had explored a possible deal with Washington for Jon Rauch but major league sources indicated that the asking price of Lowrie and Michael Bowden was way too high. Rauch was dealt to Arizona.
