Big Papi Blasts into History

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
Eric D. Schabell
Contributing Writer

At the top of the third inning last night David Ortiz blasted his 380th home run for the Boston Red Sox.

It was a towering fly ball measuring 367 feet to right field to give the Red Sox their second of six runs against Rangers starter Martin Perez.

This puts him alone in 4th on the all time list, with only three more to go to pull even with 3rd place Jim Rice.

He needs 72 more homers to reach 2nd place Carl Yastrzemski at 452.

When asked what this means to him Big Papi gave a Big Papi answer, "It means I'm getting old. You play the game and the last thing you think about is having your name mentioned with those guys. But once it happens, it's an honor."

He is currently 38 and would project to having to play until 40 years old to catch the leader in this category, Ted Williams at 521 home runs.

It was his 438th career homer, tying Andre Dawson and Jason Giambi for 40th all-time.

On a side note, he took 31.09 seconds to stroll around the bases, just narrowly beating his record holding 33.39 seconds trot as the slowest MLB home run trot ever set earlier this year.

It was his third 30+ second trot this year begging the question, is he slowing in his old age?

Post a comment or via twitter @ericschabell with your thoughts.

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