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From Davis Ortiz to Robinson Cano, a constellation of MLB‘s brightest stars have been among the game’s biggest duds in 2015.

While the five underachievers who crack this unfortunate list have all been major disappointments so far, it’s not time to write them off just yet. The most compelling reason for why they’re all poised for loud turnarounds is that they all boast impressive big league resumes.

Plus, after digging through the numbers, there’s no way to avoid the reality that a few of these stars have been downright unlucky in the opening months of 2015.

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David Ortiz doesn’t play much golf, but his event every offseason attracts some of the most dedicated golfers in baseball.

Come summertime, Big Papi is still fueling the David Ortiz Children’s Fund with events like his upcoming gala, which is sure to include plenty of Red Sox teammates and Dominican flavor.

This year, The Third Annual David Ortiz Children’s Fund Gala will be held on June 22 at 6 p.m.

The David Ortiz Children’s Fund provides pediatric care in both New England and in Ortiz’s homeland, the Dominican Republic. League-wide support for Big Papi and his cause is felt each offseason at the David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic.

This year will be the eighth annual golf event. Watch the video to see the MLB stars who join and make this one of the most entertaining off-field events every year.

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Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz has been suspended one game for bumping an umpire during Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.  

Baseball writer Danny Knobler passed along the information Tuesday from Major League Baseball:

Ortiz, 39, was tossed in the fifth inning on Sunday after third base umpire Jerry Meals called a strike on a check swing. The Red Sox slugger engaged in a staredown with Meals before approaching and bumping home plate umpire John Tumpane to argue the call. It was one of two close calls in the game that went against Ortiz.

“We didn’t feel like on either one he went,” manager John Farrell said, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. “On the first at-bat it doesn’t really have an outcome because he ends up walking. Those are quick rings on the check swing and it didn’t feel like he swung on either one.”

Orioles broadcaster Jim Palmer weighed in on Ortiz’s actions leading up to the ejection:

Ortiz’s emotions have understandably been on edge, as he’s gotten off to a slow start this season. He’s hitting .220/.340/.390 with two home runs and four RBI through 12 games, compiling just three extra-base hits. The Red Sox have been able to stay afloat despite Ortiz’s struggles—they’re an AL East-best 8-5 heading into Tuesday—but it’s nonetheless easy to pinpoint the source of his frustration.

Ortiz plans to appeal the ban, according to Mastrodonato, so he’ll be eligible for Tuesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. If Ortiz winds up losing the appeal and eventually has to sit out a contest, Allen Craig would most likely start in his place. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

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When Yogi Berra said 90 percent of baseball is mental and that the other half is physical, he was only half-right. He forgot about luck, which is also some random-but-notable percentage of the game.

Regrettably so, for some players coming off forgettable 2014 performances. Like so many Gil Gundersons, quite a few guys can chalk up their poor seasons to plain ol‘ bad luck, which has indeed been known to make individual performances look a lot worse than they actually were.

There is a bright side, however: Bad luck has also been known to go away. And though not every player who can claim to have been on Lady Luck’s bad side in 2014 is going to benefit from better luck in 2015, we can narrow things down to the ones who should.

In the interests of striking a balance between Internet-friendly brevity and proper thoroughness, I’ve narrowed my list down to five.

David Ortiz, DH, Boston Red Sox

Sure, it’s a stretch to say David Ortiz had a “bad” season in 2014. He OPS’d .873 with 35 home runs. That’s a hell of a “bad” season.

Consistency-wise, however, Big Papi‘s 2014 season was a step down. The previous three seasons saw him hit .311 with a .401 on-base percentage, but in 2014 he hit only .263 with a .355 OBP.

FanGraphs can show that Ortiz’s walk and strikeout rates were just fine. The real problem was his batting average on balls in play (BABIP), which tumbled from the .316-.321 range in 2011-2013 to just .256.

Your first instinct might be to chalk that up to how 2014 was Big Papi‘s age-38 season. That’s ancient for a ballplayer, and ancient ballplayers do tend to lose some oomph on batted balls. 

But Ortiz actually didn’t lose any oomph on batted balls in 2014. In fact, Mark Simon of ESPN Stats and Information says he made more hard contact than all but two other players:

Take a closer look, and you’ll see that Ortiz had the only sub-.300 average among the top four players and the lowest average of any player in the top 10.

Take that into consideration, and you might be tempted to point to a usual suspect: the shift. It’s doubtful that any active player has seen more shifts than Ortiz, and they certainly didn’t let up in what was by far the most shift-crazy season on record.

But you’d be surprised. Ortiz didn’t actually pull more balls than usual, and both his BABIP and his overall production were A-OK when he did:

With no problem there, maybe the only tangible explanation for Big Papi‘s 2014 issues is how he hit more fly balls than usual without upping his BABIP or his home run rate. That’s not good for BABIP.

But is it bad enough to a degree that would knock Ortiz’s BABIP roughly 60 points in the wrong direction? That’s hard to figure, especially given what we know about how squarely Big Papi hit the ball.

So, bad luck looks like the main culprit. If Ortiz does what he did last year all over again in 2015, odds are more of his hard-hit balls are going to find holes and get his numbers looking Big Papi-ish again.

T.J. House, SP, Cleveland Indians

Not unlike Ortiz, T.J. House didn’t have a “bad” season in 2014. In 19 appearances, he posted a 3.35 ERA. That’s not bad at all.

But by all rights, House should have been even better.

On the surface, House’s 2014 season looks like one where you have to take the bad with the good. Thanks largely to his outstanding control, he posted a 3.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio. But with a .332 BABIP and a 17.9 home-run-per-fly-ball (HR/FB) rate, it looks like he had a problem with hard contact.

But once again, we can turn to Mark Simon for a big ol‘ nope:

This hard-contact leaderboard features pitchers who gave up the least of it in 2014, and you can see that House is sandwiched in between Johnny Cueto and Jake Arrieta near the top.

That’s not where you’d expect a guy like House to be, but it actually makes sense. 

For starters, the 17.9 HR/FB rate he had last year was inflated by the fact that only 17.7 percent of the batted balls he served up were fly balls. That has a lot to do with how a whopping 60.9 percent of his batted balls were ground balls, an outstanding rate even in a ground-ball-crazy age.

Sadly, House didn’t get much luck when he put the ball on the ground. His .260 BABIP on grounders was 12 ticks higher than the league average of .248.

For this, House can thank his infield defense. It was awful by reputation, and the metrics back that up. Per FanGraphs, the Tribe’s infield defense combined for minus-41 Defensive Runs Saved in 2014.

Fortunately for House, things should be better in 2014. Jose Ramirez is a huge upgrade over Asdrubal Cabrera at shortstop. Jason Kipnis is a better defensive second baseman than he looked in 2014. Carlos Santana could benefit from finally getting to play first base on a regular basis.

If Cleveland’s infield defense improves while House continues to rack up ground balls, don’t be surprised if he has a big breakout. Somewhere in him is a sub-3.00 ERA, and luck may be the key to letting it out.

Colby Rasmus, CF, Houston Astros

Unlike Ortiz and House, Colby Rasmus did have a bad year in 2014. He was limited by injuries to only 104 games and hit just .225/.287/.448 when he did play. 

And frankly, Rasmus did some things to deserve such terrible production. Notably, his walk rate took a slight downturn from 2013, and he struck out in about a third of his plate appearances.

It also didn’t help that Rasmus‘ BABIP declined from .356 in 2013 to .294 in 2014. Given that such a mark is more in line with his career .298 BABIP, it looks like he experienced a natural regression.

Or not.

Refer back to the hard-contact leaderboard in Ortiz’s section, and you’ll find Rasmus slightly ahead of National League batting champion Justin Morneau. That’s no mirage, as this table from my Rasmus-centric piece can show he hit fewer infield flies, more line drives and longer fly balls in 2014:

Like with Ortiz, it’s easy to look at the lefty-swinging, pull-heavy Rasmus and conclude that the shift is what killed his production in 2014. But once again, that doesn’t really work. His production on pulled balls was either right in line or better than his assorted career norms.

So what Rasmus told Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi rings true: “I’ve been crushing balls, but I haven’t had the luck, the balls just haven’t been finding holes. They’re standing right where I hit it, you know what I’m saying? Bullets. Like if it would have been to the left or right five feet ain’t no way they catch it. It’s tough, man.”

Due to Rasmus‘ injury-proneness and over-aggressive approach, he’ll probably be only so productive in 2015. But if he keeps crushing the ball, it’s a very good bet that he’ll have better luck.

The result could be a return to what he was in 2013, when he quietly OPS’d .840 with 22 dingers in 118 games. If that’s what the Astros get, they’ll be quite happy with their $8 million investment.

Nathan Eovaldi, SP, New York Yankees

On one hand, 2014 was a breakthrough year for Nathan Eovaldi. After never topping 120 innings, he came one out shy of hitting 200. That’s not a small feat.

On the other hand, there was that 4.37 ERA. That didn’t look overly fluky, as he only struck out 6.4 batters per nine innings and gave up 223 hits even despite his high-90s velocity.

There is, however, one thing Eovaldi has in common with House: Though he didn’t serve up soft contact like House did, he did experience a shortage of good luck on ground balls.

Eovaldi wasn’t great at getting ground balls, but he got enough of them with a ground-ball percentage of 44.8. And according to Baseball-Reference.com, that equated to 294 ground balls in his 199.2 innings.

His BABIP on those ground balls? That was .279.

The next-highest ground-ball BABIP among pitchers who served up at least 290 grounders? That would be .270. So, Eovaldi has a claim to being 2014’s unluckiest ground-ball pitcher.

Like with House, Eovaldi‘s defense played a role. The Miami Marlins’ infield defense combined for minus-25 Defensive Runs Saved. His situation should be improved with the Yankees this year, as they have a chance to have above-average defenders around the horn in Chase Headley, Didi Gregorius, Stephen Drew and Mark Teixeira.

And Eovaldi should be able to help himself by getting even more ground balls. He’s been working on making his splitter a go-to pitch, and FanGraphs‘ Jeff Sullivan sees two things worth liking: “… And while a pitch’s effectiveness is based on a lot more than just how fast it goes, higher velocities mean greater margins of error, and what was observed toward the end [of 2014] was that Eovaldi was, at the very least, able to keep his splitter down.”

Eovaldi was throwing his splitter right around 90 miles per hour in 2014 and consistently locating it below the knees. That sounds like a picture-perfect splitter, and we know that picture-perfect splitters excel just as much at getting grounders as they do at getting whiffs.

Thus, Eovaldi‘s 2015 turnaround could be the best of both worlds: He could collect on outstanding good luck and also make the good luck come to him.

Jim Johnson, RP, Atlanta Braves

Jim Johnson fell so hard in 2014 that it’s surprising there wasn’t an audible “Splat!” After saving over 50 games in 2012 and 2013, he saved only two while racking up a 7.09 ERA.

But given that Johnson is a ground-ball pitcher, you can probably guess where we’re going with this.

Though Johnson posted a characteristic 58.1 ground-ball percentage in 2014, he was only rewarded with a .291 BABIP on grounders. That’s a staggering 61 points higher than his career mark of .229.

Naturally, it didn’t help that Johnson pitched in front of two shaky infield defenses. The Oakland A’s infield wasn’t anything special outside of Josh Donaldson, and the Detroit Tigers infield wasn’t much to look at outside of Ian Kinsler.

The Braves should suit Johnson better. He’ll love pitching to Andrelton Simmons, and Alberto Callaspo and Freddie Freeman are solid defenders themselves.

There is a catch, however, and that’s that better luck on ground balls will only solve half Johnson’s problems. He also walked nearly six batters per nine innings, which he can’t blame on his defense.

Or can he?

Despite his elevated walk rate, Johnson actually threw a higher percentage of pitches in the strike zone (43.6) than he did in 2013. What really changed was how often his strikes were actually called strikes. Per figures pulled from BaseballSavant.com, Johnson went from a 92.6 called-strike percentage in 2013 to a meager 82.4 called-strike percentage in 2014.

That’s partially on umpires, and partially on his catchers. If Christian Bethancourt proves to be a solid pitch-framer in his first full season in 2015, Johnson shouldn’t have the same problem.

If so, then simply moving to the Braves will solve both of the major luck-based problems he had in 2014. That could turn Johnson’s fall from grace around in a hurry.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Let’s preface this by stating the obvious: It’s really early. This isn’t going to be a piece making outlandish declarations from a handful of spring training games. Instead, we’ll simply look at which Boston Red Sox players are making notable impressions in the early stages of baseball’s return. 

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Yoenis Cespedes has wasted no time making his presence felt as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

The powerful outfielder has just 47 plate appearances under his belt for the Red Sox, and it’s true his .239/.255/.435 line might not look terribly impressive. But Cespedes has already shown a flare for the dramatic, hitting back-to-back, go-ahead eighth-inning homers earlier this week. It’s not a coincidence that the Red Sox are 7-5 since they traded for Cespedes at the deadline.

In Cespedes, the Sox have a legitimate right-handed power hitter who lengthens the middle of their lineup. The trio of David Ortiz, Cespedes and Mike Napoli batting third, fourth and fifth, respectively, is a daunting proposition for opposing pitchers. Similarly, the combination of Cespedes and Jackie Bradley Jr. patrolling the outfield puts opposing baserunners on notice.

In short, Cespedes is the most athletic, toolsiest player the Red Sox have in their organization right now, and while the cost to acquire him was steep, he adds some much-needed offensive upside to a team that’s scored the fifth-fewest runs in the game this year.

For all these reasons and more, the Red Sox should take a long, hard look at extending Cespedes beyond 2015, as they look to fill one of the few long-term gaps their farm system has been unable to plug.

Right-handed power is one of the rarer commodities in the game today. Last year, only seven right-handed hitters hit 30 or more home runs, and only 10 more righties hit between 25-29 homers. Cespedes was one such batter, of course, mashing 26 homers despite the pitcher-friendly confines of O.Co Coliseum in Oakland.

Before the trade for Cespedes, the Red Sox didn’t have a reliable source of right-handed power other than Napoli, who’s suffered through myriad injuries this season. Xander Bogaerts and Will Middlebrooks have power potential, but they’ve yet to demonstrate the ability to turn that potential into results at the MLB level.

Even if we extend our parameters of the search for power to left-handers, Boston was fairly unimpressive this season. Including David Ortiz’ 26 bombs, the Sox have just 89 homers on the year, good for the fifth-lowest total in the league.

And despite all the talent in the Red Sox farm system, this is an organization that (with Bogaerts now graduated) lacks a true power hitter in its ranks who figures to see the majors over the next few years.

Mookie Betts and Blake Swihart profile as above-average offensive players, but power isn’t a calling card for either. Deven Marrero’s value lies in his defense, Manny Margot is more of a well-rounded talent than a power threat, and Garin Cecchini’s inability to hit for power has been well documented.

The best power-hitting prospect in Boston’s system is probably Rafael Devers, who, as a 17-year-old in rookie ball, is at least three seasons away from making an impact at Fenway.

Extending Cespedes would give the Sox a power-hitting cornerstone in the middle of their lineup to rely upon beyond 2015, when Napoli is slated to become a free agent and when Ortiz will be over 40. Quite simply, he’s a source of dependable power that Boston hasn’t been able to replicate through its minor league system.

The free-agent market doesn’t figure to be much more fruitful in producing power hitters, either. Fewer marquee players are reaching free agency in today’s game, as the game’s economics dictate that locking up young, productive players is the safer bet. There are exceptions, of course, but free agents today generally consist of role players or players who are well past their 30th birthdays.

For example, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the premier right-handed outfielders in the 2015 free-agent class include Nelson Cruz, Mike Morse, Michael Cuddyer, Josh Willingham and Torii Hunter. These players have their uses, but none can match Cespedes‘ upside or all-around ability to impact a game.

It’s similarly difficult to find talent like Cespedes available on the trading block. The Giancarlo Stanton pipe dream aside, there aren’t many right-handed slugging outfielders available for the Red Sox to try and pry away. The Blue Jays aren’t trading Jose Bautista. The Orioles aren’t trading Adam Jones. The Braves aren’t trading Justin Upton. And, oddly enough, the Angels aren’t trading Mike Trout.

If we engage in pure speculation, there are a few outfield talents, right-handed or otherwise, who could be available. The Rockies could look to move Carlos Gonzalez. The Reds could move Jay Bruce. The Nats could move Jayson Werth or Ryan Zimmerman. And yes, it’s within the realm of possibility that the Marlins move Stanton, too.

But why give up a bevy of prospects for one of these players—if said players are available at all—when all it takes to lock down Cespedes now is some measure of financial flexibility?

Earlier this week, WEEI.com’s Alex Speier took a look at what a Cespedes contract extension might look like, using a variety of recent free-agent contracts and extensions to give us an idea as to what Cespedes might earn.

On the low end of the spectrum, Speier references the four-year, $48 million agreement Nick Swisher reached with the Indians and the four-year, $60 million agreement Curtis Granderson reached with the Mets.

On the high end, Speier mentions the five-year, $75 million contract signed by B.J. Upton, and the five-year, $90 million extension signed by Hunter Pence.

An extension for Cespedes may very well fall closer to the Pence side of the equation than the Granderson side. But it’s not so crazy to think that Cespedes could be worth a deal that pays him between $17 and $18 million a year.

Plus, even if Cespedes doesn’t fully live up to his contract, the Sox can afford to take somewhat of a financial hit. Dustin Pedroia represents their only significant financial investment beyond 2015, and the organization has done well to avoid the shackles that come with giving out seven- or eight-year deals to hitters and five- or six-year deals to pitchers. 

By locking up Cespedes to a four- or five-year deal sometime between now and next April, the Red Sox will assure themselves of having the services of one of the better right-handed power hitters in the game for the next half-decade. Given the dearth of right-handed power in the game right now and Boston’s financial flexibility, it’s a move they should make.

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For years, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz has defended himself from rumors about performance-enhancing drug usage. This week, he went slightly further to prove he was clean, responding strongly to suggestions that he isn’t held to the same standards as others involved in PED scandals.

It all started when Red Sox pitcher John Lackey and Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter got in a war of words Saturday regarding the Orioles’ Nelson Cruz, who was suspended 50 games last year after MLB ruled he took a banned substance.

When discussing the dust-up Monday, MLB Network analyst Joe Magrane apparently said Ortiz received a “free pass” after a 2009 New York Times report identified him as testing positive for PEDs in 2003, per Steve Silva of The Boston Globe.

Ortiz shared his thoughts on Magrane’s comments with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com:

In this country, nobody gets a free pass. He wants to make it sound like I got a free pass because nobody can point fingers at me directly. But the reason why I got that fake [expletive] free pass that he’s saying is because they pointed fingers at me with no proof.

It’s easier to do it that way than having something that they can say, “Yes, you did this, you did that.” My [expletive], I call straight-up bull. Let me tell you. You don’t get no free pass here, especially a guy like me. I don’t get no free pass. That free-pass B.S. that they want to talk about over there, they can shove it up their [expletive].

Ortiz has repeatedly denied the Times‘ 2009 report, but his name has still been tossed around by analysts since it surfaced.

Meanwhile, Cruz is now the American League’s starting designated hitter in the 2014 All-Star Game. Though he might not have received a free pass, he is making the most of his return.

Ortiz wasn’t done there, though:

What pisses me off is the whole thing about, why does my name got to be mentioned in that? What did I have to do with that? … It was the Lackey and Showalter thing, going back and forth. Showalter didn’t say anything about me.

Dan Dakich of ESPN provides his thoughts on Ortiz’s comments:

Though he’s up in arms about the comments made, Ortiz has been putting together another strong year. While his batting average sits at .259, he has hit 19 home runs, has 55 RBI and holds a .360 on-base percentage.

As for his team, the Sox haven’t had the same success as last season and currently sit in the cellar of the AL East. Looking up at the division-leading Orioles from 10 games back, it remains to be seen if Ortiz’s comments have any effect on the team or bring any added attention.

Trying to claw their way back into the race, maybe an upset Ortiz will do just the trick to help get the franchise re-focused.

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Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz delivers his brief but powerful message to the United States men’s national team prior to its battle with Belgium in the round of 16.

(Note: This video has borderline NSFW language)

Tell ’em, Big Papi.

[Instagram]

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In Boston, David Ortiz‘s legacy is complete. Regardless of how the rest of his career plays out, one of the most beloved Red Sox of all time will always be remembered fondly at Fenway Park. That will remain true even if decline has set in for a possible future Cooperstown-bound star.

Heading into play on June 20, Ortiz’s numbers are down from previous seasons, especially when it comes to slugging percentage. With a .471 mark, the left-handed power hitter has been limited to just 26 extra-base hits. From 2004-2013, Ortiz averaged 72 extra-base hits per year, buoying his .546 career slugging percentage.

As the entire Red Sox team struggles to find offense and consistency in the aftermath of a special World Series championship season, Ortiz’s struggles have flown under the radar. With 16 home runs, 43 RBI and clutch hits—including game-winning or game-tying long balls against the Tigers and Twins in recent weeks—the most visible star in Boston isn’t receiving flak for a slow start.

In fact, Boston’s 34-39 record has caused team-wide frustration, possibly leading to players, like Ortiz, attempting to do too much at the plate. That was a recent theory from manager John Farrell, per Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com:

When we’re struggling, the competitor in these guys might force someone to say, ‘OK, I want to be the guy in this instance,’…Last year there was such continuity in the lineup that if [a hit] wasn’t there, it could pass on to the next guy. Because we have some inconsistency in our lineup, at times, I think maybe there’s some more self-induced pressure to be The One in the moment.

So, is Ortiz in decline or trying too hard? The answer is complicated and partially involves luck.

To be clear, Ortiz does look to be in decline. At the age of 38, that’s inevitable. With an increasing strikeout rate and declining isolated slugging percentage from last season, Boston’s most important hitter is simply not the same game-changing force he was across the 2013 campaign. 

That being said, this isn’t a sharp decline or alarming trend that the Red Sox must be worried about during every Ortiz at-bat this summer. The fall from all-time great slugger to very good hitter is a talking point, but not something to cause panic at Fenway Park.

Instead, Ortiz’s current issues stem in part from some bad luck on batted balls. Now, as the numbers are explained, it’s instructive to consider that Boston’s season-long struggle may be factoring in to these numbers. If Farrell is correct, a pressing Ortiz could be the cause for the woes and contributing to the poor luck.

The following chart shows Ortiz’s year-by-year slugging percentage marks and BABIP (batting average on balls in play) figures. As you can see, the second-worst slugging year Ortiz has ever experienced as a full-time player has coincided with a drop in BABIP. 

Outside of a miserable 2009 season, Ortiz has ranked in the top 12 of slugging percentage leaders every year of his Red Sox career. This year, he’s down to 16th. 

Last season, Ortiz walked 12.7 percent of the time. This year, that number is 13.3 percent. While his line-drive percentage is down slightly from last year (22.6 vs. 19.3 percent), those numbers suggest that Ortiz isn’t a remarkably different offensive player now than he was when the World Series concluded.

Yet, with a slugging percentage down almost 100 points (.564 to .471), it’s natural to look for a reason. 

BABIP rates can fluctuate, but league-average marks tend to sit around .290 or .300. At .240, Ortiz is well below that and a candidate for “bad luck” to be used as a legitimate reason for declining numbers this season. While declining line-drive rates and age are certainly part of the equation, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Right now, the Red Sox feel like a talented yet flawed team teetering on an edge. If another hot streak commences, a 6.5-game deficit in the AL East can be made up and Ortiz’s clutch bat could take over during a pennant chase.

However, it’s clear that Boston isn’t the same team it was last year. If struggles and losing baseball continues at Fenway Park, Ortiz won’t have the opportunity to mask a down year with season-changing walk-off hits.

It’s easy to understand that Ortiz’s game reached a late-career apex last season, but watching a slow decline is harder to dissect. For now, chalk this season up to poor luck and possibly too much pressure to carry a mediocre offense.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, FanGraphs and ESPN unless otherwise noted and valid entering play on June 20.

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No longer will Joe Torre sit idly by as his official scorers are publicly ridiculed and questioned. Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations took David Ortiz to task for comments he made regarding a ruling during Wednesday’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins.

MLB Public Relations tweeted out Torre’s statement:

Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe indicates Ortiz had no comment on the situation:

The incident in question involved a grounder to first base, which Joe Mauer booted. The scorer ruled the play an error, much to Ortiz’s dismay. Immediately after he reached first, he let the scorer know exactly how he felt, per Joon Lee of SB Nation’s Over The Monster:

You can see the play below and decide for yourself whether it was a hit or an error. A case could be made for either ruling.

Following the game, Ortiz didn’t let the issue die. He said that he “thought people were supposed to have your back at home, and it never happens,” per ESPNBoston.com.

“It’s always like that,” Ortiz added. “I’ve been here for more than a decade and the scorekeepers here are always horrible. This is home, man.”

This isn’t the first time in 2014 that the designated hitter has taken exception to a scorer’s decision. Back in May, MLB changed the fly ball that fell in between Rougned Odor and Alex Rios from an error to a hit—but that came after an initial protest from Ortiz. That was the same game in which Yu Darvish was chasing a no-hitter.

You can understand why Ortiz would fight for every hit he can get, especially during a month in which he’s hitting .188. However, next time he’s upset with a ruling, he should probably keep it behind closed doors rather than issuing a public rebuke.

Ortiz has already done enough in his career, anyway. A few percentage points here and there aren’t going to change things too much.

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