Need a reason to watch the Red Sox? How about the David Ortiz 500 home run watch

Before last night's nationally televised Red Sox-Yankees matchup in New York, David Ortiz said into the camera: "I like ESPN games because I go deep every time on ESPN.  I save my moonshots for ESPN."  Big Papi then went out and hit a 441-foot bomb to the back of the bleachers in right field, the second-longest blast of the season at Yankee Stadium.

It was the 487th home run of Ortiz's career, his 21st of the year.  Can he hit 13 more in 2015?  The 48-60 Sox have 54 games remaining.  For Ortiz to reach 500, he'll need to go deep once every 4.15 games.

On June 10 (60 games into the season), Ortiz had a .219 batting average and just six homers.  However, since that time Papi is hitting .273 with 15 long balls in Boston's last 48 contests--an average of one home run every 3.2 games.

At that pace, Ortiz will crank career homer No. 500 with nearly two weeks to spare (game No. 150 of 162).  Sean McAdam notes his current full-season rate (every 5.14 games) won't get it done, but that number has dropped significantly since it stood at one home run every 10 games two months ago.


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