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Before last night's game against Toronto, David Ortiz made noqualms about the state of his much talked about right knee.
"Sore," he said. "Hopefully it will go away the next couple ofdays because it's (expletive) sore."
The question some have regarding the slugger's current conditionis why this knee, which bothered him throughout the 2007 season, isstill an issue. The perception was the surgery Ortiz underwent inNovember, an intra-articular procedure called a meniscectomy inwhich damaged meniscus is removed, would have led him back to nearfull health by the time May rolled around.
The blame for Ortiz' current pain, according to those familiarwith the injury, can be traced to his head-first dive into firstbase in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday night. While the recentinjury is more external in nature, it forced the same underdevelopedportions of his knee to draw support from a quadriceps muscle thatis not yet at full strength due to the offseason surgery.
In a nutshell, the dive into first base certainly did nothing tohelp Ortiz in the healing process.
"Yes, it was getting better," Ortiz said. "It wasn't bothering methat much. Well, it was, but not like it is now. It's just sore, Ican't really explain."
The good news is Ortiz had been on a positive track regarding hisrecovery from the surgery.
The bad news is that because of his recent setback it is asubject that doesn't figure to be going away any time soon.
"I think he will. I don't think it's realistic that he won't,"said Red Sox manager Terry Francona regarding Ortiz having to dealwith flareups in the foreseeable future.
"He had his surgery, he's a big guy. He's not 22 years old. Ithink that's just the way your life is as you start progressing inyour career. Sometimes we may have to give the guy the day off. Fromhis side of this, he knows this. You can't just come and play thegame. He doesn't have that freedom anymore. He knows that and does apretty good job with that."
Ortiz, however, isn't planning on getting the kind of three-dayvacation he had over the weekend on too many more occasions.
"When I get a day off because of pain," he said, "it's becauseI'm dying."
- rbradford@bostonherald.com
CAPTION: OUT OF JOINT: Sox slugger David Ortiz, who's stillbattling knee soreness, reacts after popping out during the firstinning of last night's series finale against the Blue Jays atFenway. STAFF PHOTO BY MATT STONE
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