BoSox: Ortiz Dropped to Seventh in Order

From the Providence Journal blog:

Since David Ortiz was hitting a lowly .103 in his last 10 games, manager Terry Francona dropped the slumping slugger to the No. 7 spot in the order for Friday's game against the Rangers.Francona said he spoke Ortiz Friday morning about the decision and said both were fine with the move. "I'm hitting like

that's why," said Ortiz. Earlier this season Ortiz was in the midst of a horrible skid until he started to come around midseason. Now that it's August and the Sox are trailing the Yankees in the A.L. East and are in a tight wild-card race with the Rangers, Francona wants the best lineup on the field. "We've got ourselves to a time of the year where sometimes you ask guys to look past their own personal

," said Francona. "Let's just do everything in our power to win every game we can."

Remember when Joe Torre dropped ARod down to eighth in the order in the lat game of the ALDS against the Tigers in 2006?  People cried foul, that Joe had paniced and disrespected ARod, despite the fact that ARod went 1 for 14 that series.  Torre was doing everything in his power to win the Yankees last game of the season and batting the slumping and mentally burnt ARod at cleanup probably wasn't going to help. Of course, Tito is in a better position.  First of all, he's Terry Francona and he can do no wrong.* Secondly, Ortiz is persona non grata at this stage so demoting him in the lineup is a bit more acceptable.  Finally, everyone has been expecting a decline from Ortiz and there's no way to handle it gracefully without hurting your team.

* That isn't snark on my part.  I have a lot of respect for the man.

Still, I don't think it's that far off from what Torre did.