David Ortiz Gets Testy On Bat Flip After 2nd Yankee Stadium 'Bomb'
NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) -- It was the bat flip heard 'round the Bronx.
Red Sox slugger David Ortiz hit a two-run drive in Tuesday's win over the Yankees and made a show of it with a cocky toss of his bat -- followed by a silky pirouette before starting toward first base.
Then, during Wednesday night's 11-6 Yankees loss, the reigning AL player of the week blasted yet another two-run homer off starter A.J. Burnett, leading Boston one game closer to a Yankee Stadium season sweep.
So David, what did you hit?
"A bomb," he said, drawing laughs.
Ortiz wasn't at all concerned about New York throwing at him in retaliation.
"Why should I?" he said. "I don't care about what Joe Girardi said. I come to play the game every day. That's about it. I'm done with that."
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after Tuesday's loss he "didn't really care for" the bat flip theatrics and Ortiz said it was simply "Papi style."
"We cross that line, we take it like a man," said Ortiz. "That's it."
That home run came one pitch after rookie Hector Noesi backed Ortiz off the plate, but the Yankees never brushed him back Wednesday.
"He's been doing that for years. Who cares?" said Burnett. "I didn't watch him tonight when he hit it off me and I didn't see it last night."
Who cares? Former Yankees and Mets hurler Doc Gooden, for one.
"In the 80s Ortiz would be laying on his a-- right now after the stunt he pulled last night," Dr. K tweeted on Wednesday.
"We're not trying to pitch him right down the middle," Girardi said, "which is where the pitches seem to end up."
And there was a reason Ortiz played it cool when he connected Wednesday.
"I don't want to be national news tomorrow," he said. "I don't want to have you guys asking me the same questions. I've got almost 370 bombs in the big leagues. Everybody wants to make a big deal because I bat-flip one of them."
Does Ortiz need an old-fashioned hardball brush-back? Fire away in the comments below...
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