KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was in the lineup Tuesday one night after he heard a click in his left wrist while batting in the ninth inning.
Ortiz grounded out to first in his final at-bat in Boston’s 4-3 loss at Kansas City on Monday.
“It is all right,” Ortiz said before Tuesday night’s game against the Royals. “It is something I’ve got to deal with it the rest of the season. I’m going to have good days and bad days. Some days it feels right, sometimes it didn’t.”
Ortiz missed 45 games with a partial tear of the tendon sheath in his left wrist before returning July 25. He hurt himself swinging at a pitch against Baltimore on May 31.
Ortiz batted .263 with one home run and five RBIs in his first 10 games back after the injury. He entered Tuesday hitless in his past nine at-bats and 3-for-22 with one RBI in his past six games.
“He said, ‘I don’t need a day off,”’ Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “Reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.”
Third baseman Mike Lowell was back in the lineup after receiving a cortisone shot Monday for a strained right hip flexor, which has been bothering him for more than a month.
Francona put J.D. Drew in the leadoff spot against Kansas City for the second straight game, and second time this season. Francona said the switch isn’t permanent, but he is attempting “to get the lineup as elongated as we can.”
Drew batted third 42 games, mostly when Ortiz was on the disabled list, and in the sixth slot for 35 games.
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