We're used to David Ortiz beating up on the Twins, but his recent barrage has some historic merit to it. The first homer of Wednesday night -- and his third of the series to this point -- pushed him ahead of Jim Rice for sole possession of third place on the Red Sox all-time home run list. As is befitting such a moment, it was an upper-deck shot:
It "only" went 410 feet, but that's because a dumb ballpark got in the way. (I kid, Minnesota, Target Field is lovely and I would like to visit. Especially if Ortiz is playing.)
Papi wasn't done, either. He already had a double and the aforementioned homer to pass Rice, but then he went deep again, just missing a second upper-deck shot by nailing the facade with a 404-foot shot.
That home run tied Ortiz for 39th-place on the all-time Major League Baseball home run list, alongside Dave Kingman. His next target is a moving one, as Adam Dunn is still playing, and still cranking homers:
Rk | Player | HR | From | To | Age | PA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
31 | Carlos Delgado | 473 | 1993 | 2009 | 21-37 | 8657 |
32 | Chipper Jones | 468 | 1993 | 2012 | 21-40 | 10614 |
33 | Dave Winfield | 465 | 1973 | 1995 | 21-43 | 12358 |
34 | Jose Canseco | 462 | 1985 | 2001 | 20-36 | 8129 |
35 | Carl Yastrzemski | 452 | 1961 | 1983 | 21-43 | 13992 |
36 | Vladimir Guerrero | 449 | 1996 | 2011 | 21-36 | 9059 |
37 | Jeff Bagwell | 449 | 1991 | 2005 | 23-37 | 9431 |
38 | Adam Dunn | 445 | 2001 | 2014 | 21-34 | 7950 |
39 | David Ortiz | 442 | 1997 | 2014 | 21-38 | 8413 |
40 | Dave Kingman | 442 | 1971 | 1986 | 22-37 | 7429 |
He's not doing so at quite the pace Papi is, though -- Ortiz has four in his last two games and Dunn has five on the entire season -- so maybe it won't take that long at all.