In today's Red Sox news update, Major League Baseball executive vice president Joe Torre is looking for Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz to show more respect in light of Ortiz blasting an official scorer after Wednesday's 2-1 victory over the Twins at Fenway Park.
Per Mark Townsend of Yahoo! Sports, Torre released a statement on Friday both defending the official scorer and taking Ortiz to task for his comments:
"Official scorers have a job to do, and by their very nature, their decisions don't make everyone happy. But everyone in our game deserves respect. I hope that David will meet that standard going forward, because I don't share the same views that he expressed.
"Official scorers should never give any benefit of the doubt to the home team. We want their best judgment, based on the rules. We have a process to review the decisions that our scorers make. Even when there are inevitable disagreements, we expect everybody to act professionally and respect the game and the integrity of our scorers."
The situation in question happened in the seventh inning of Wednesday's contest. Per Yahoo's Townsend, "despite hitting a game-tying home in the 10th inning of Boston's thrilling 2-1 victory, Ortiz couldn't focus on anything other than the official scorer charging Minnesota first baseman Joe Mauer with an error on a difficult fielding chance rather than crediting Ortiz with a hit in the seventh inning."
Ortiz made his displeasure abundantly clear after the game, via the Boston Globe:
What is he watching?” Ortiz said afterward. “He’s not watching the same ballgame that everybody’s watching, I guess.”
What is he watching?” Ortiz said afterward. “He’s not watching the same ballgame that everybody’s watching, I guess.”“People are supposed to have your back at home, and it never happens,” said Ortiz. “It’s always like that. I’ve been here more than a decade and the scorekeepers here are always horrible. This is home, man.”
Ortiz has yet to comment on Torre's statement, but needless to say, his retort will most likely be interesting to say the least.
Per ESPN.com, Ortiz felt quite justified in voicing his complaint - especially in light of his .188 average in June.
"I've got to make it clear," Ortiz said Wednesday. "It's not my first rodeo, man. You know how hard it is to get a hit, man?"
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