Print      
Ortiz, Wright deny Yankees
Homers highlight complete game
By Peter Abraham
Globe Staff

NEW YORK — As he crosses the plate after every home run, David Ortiz looks up and raises both index fingers. It’s a gesture of remembrance for his mother, who died in 2002 in a car accident.

Angela Rosa Arias was only 46 and did not live to see her son become one of the most impactful players in baseball history.

That made the two home runs Ortiz hit against the Yankees on Sunday, Mother’s Day, especially poignant to him. Both times, he looked to the sky for perhaps a beat longer than usual.

“Today is very special for all of us. I think I picked a very good day to hit two home runs,’’ Ortiz said after the Red Sox beat the Yankees, 5-1. “I know she’s in a place just watching me. It’s a special day.’’

Ortiz now has 454 home runs with the Red Sox, passing Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski for second place in team history. Only Ted Williams, with 521, has more.

“That means a lot. You’re talking about the all-time greatest in the history of the game who have done wonderful things,’’ Ortiz said. “Being part of it is just something special. Makes me proud.’’

It was the 51st game with multiple home runs for Ortiz, his fifth against the Yankees. Ortiz has 512 career home runs, tying Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews for 22d all time.

Ortiz already has nine home runs this season, a pace that would give him 47. To put that in some perspective, no player in his age-40 season or older has ever hit more than 34 home runs.

“He’s in such a good groove. So many balls are squared up, hit hard,’’ Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “He’s having fun playing.’’

The question was asked, is Ortiz still going to retire?

Ortiz laughed and said he was. The good news is the Red Sox still have 131 games remaining — maybe more. At 18-13, they’re a half-game out of first place in the American League East.

Steven Wright could have something to say about that, too. The righthander threw the first complete game of his career, just missing a shutout when Brett Gardner homered with two outs in the ninth inning.

Wright settled for a 101-pitch complete game, his knuckleball confounding the Yankees at every turn. He allowed three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Wright is 3-3 with a 1.52 earned run average. He has given the Red Sox at least six innings in each of his six starts and has yet to allow more than two runs.

“He’s been extremely dependable. You have a pretty good sense of what he’s going to give you each time he walks to the mound,’’ Farrell said.

Sunday was a masterpiece as Wright faced only 29 hitters and retired 13 straight at one point.

“He was filling up the zone with strikes. They were swinging early,’’ catcher Ryan Hanigan said. “I told him to stay right there. Get the ball and go. He was one step ahead of them.’’

In the ninth, Wright fell behind Gardner, 2 and 1, and threw him a fastball that was lined out to right field. Wright had no regrets.

“It would have been great to get a shutout. It was more important for me to throw strikes. I fell behind, and up 5-0 I wasn’t going to walk him,’’ Wright said. “So I figured I take my chances and he put a really good swing on it.’’

Wright started the season in the rotation as a replacement for the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. He won’t be going anywhere once Rodriguez comes back.

“His pitching is speaking loud and clear,’’ Farrell said.

The game started about as well as it could for the Red Sox. Mookie Betts drew a four-pitch walk off hard-throwing Luis Severino then Dustin Pedroia hit a full-count fastball to right field for his fifth home run of the season.

The ball just cleared the wall as Carlos Beltran tried to make a leaping grab.

“I got fastball and hit it. The ballpark helped me out. Pretty self-explanatory,’’ Pedroia said.

Severino retired 10 consecutive batters after Pedroia’s home run, seven by strikeout. That streak ended with a bang in the fourth inning.

Ortiz hit a 97-mile-per-hour fastball 422 feet over the fence in right-center. Ortiz struck again in the seventh inning, silencing a crowd that booed him all weekend.

Xander Bogaerts homered in the eighth inning off Chasen Shreve.

Wright allowed a single to left field by Brian McCann with two outs in the first inning and not another hit until Starlin Castro doubled to right field to lead off the seventh inning.

It was the first time all game the Yankees had a runner in scoring position.

Castro advanced to third when McCann hit a fly ball to deep right field. With Mark Teixeira up, Wright threw a knuckleball that got about a foot past Hanigan on his right side.

Castro broke for the plate, realized his mistake, and was easily thrown out by Hanigan going back to third.

“Being able to keep the knuckleball in the strike zone, that was a big factor. It got them in a swing mode,’’ said Wright, who helped himself with several nice fielding plays.

“I felt really good in the last 15 pitches in the bullpen as far as the rhythm and tempo went. I was just trying to keep that throughout the game.’’