Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz won his first Major League Baseball Home Run Derby title on Monday.
Ortiz blasted 11 home runs in the competition’s final round to hold off Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins, who managed just five. Corey Hart of the Milwaukee Brewers finished third in the eight-man contest at Angel Stadium.
Now in its 25th year, the Home Run Derby is the traditional warm-up for the league’s annual All-Star Game, which was to be played on yesterday at the home of the Los Angeles Angels.
The victory gives Ortiz, known as “Big Papi,” long-ball bragging rights for this year’s season, and a definitive answer to those who had wondered earlier this season if his swing had gone missing.
After struggling through April, Ortiz, a member of Boston’s 2004 and 2007 World Series winning teams, had 18 homers on the season at the All-Star break, six behind league-leader Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Ortiz finished with 32 home runs over three rounds of competition, with Ramirez, the Marlins shortstop, on 25 and Hart, unable to connect in his deciding at-bat, on 13.
The longest blast of the night came from St Louis Cardinals left-fielder Matt Holliday, whose shot to the left-field bleachers measured 151m.
■ALL STAR GAME
Reuters, NEW YORK
Colorado Rockies right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez and Tampa Bay Rays southpaw David Price have been named the starting pitchers for yesterday’s All-Star game.
Jimenez, 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA this season, pitched the Rockies’ first no-hitter on April 17, when he whitewashed the host Atlanta Braves 4-0 at Turner Field.
The 26-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, picked to start on Monday by National League manager Charlie Manuel of the Philadelphia Phillies, is the first NL pitcher to head into the All-Star break with 15 victories since Greg Maddux in 1988.
Price, 24, given the starting job by American League manager Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees, is 12-4 and his 2.42 ERA ranks first among AL starters.
Both Jimenez and Price are first-time All-Stars. The game, last won by the National League in 1996, will be played in Anaheim, California.
■CLIFF LEE
Reuters, ANAHEIM, California
It all happened so quickly.
First Cliff Lee was a Mariner. One morning last week he woke up and thought he might be a Yankee. Then he found out he was a Ranger.
Now, the day before yesterday’s game, he was an All Star for the second time. Who could blame him for this momentary confusion?
Lee, the 2008 American League Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland, was asked about the possibility of returning to Philadelphia, the team he won two games for in last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees before being traded to the Seattle Mariners during the off-season.
His answer was politic, but a few days out of date.
“That’s down the road,” Lee said of rejoining the Phillies. “Right now I’m a Mariner.”
There was a burst of laughter and Lee flinched.
“A Ranger,” he said, correcting himself. “I was so used to saying that.”
The American League West division-leading Rangers will be the left-handed Lee’s fourth team in just over 12 months. He was traded by Cleveland to the Phillies before last year’s All Star break, and then sent to Seattle in December last year.
As a study in perpetual motion, Lee has become accustomed to frequent changes of address and clubhouse.
“It doesn’t take long,” he said. “The hard part is figuring out everyone’s names. I’m really good with faces, not that good with names. That’s the challenging part for me.”
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