July 10, 2013: David Ortiz sets record for most hits by a designated hitter

David Ortiz had been designated to hit, and that he did. With an eighth-inning single in the Boston Red Sox’ 11-8 win over the Seattle Mariners on July 9, 2013, Ortiz had 1,688 base hits as a designated hitter, tying the all-time mark held by Harold Baines.

As the Red Sox, who led American League East by 3½ games over the Tampa Bay Rays, continued their West Coast trip on July 10 with the third game of their four-game series in Seattle, Ortiz was aware that he was approaching the DH record. It was reported in both the Seattle and Boston newspapers, and more widely. (Seattle DH Edgar Martinez, who had retired after the 2004 season, ranked third with 1,607 hits as a DH.1)

Seattle’s pitcher for the Wednesday evening game at Safeco Field was veteran right-hander Aaron Harang, in what turned out to be his only season for Eric Wedge’s Mariners. The 35-year-old Harang had a 4-7 record and a 4.92 ERA in 14 starts with Seattle. Pitching for John Farrell and the Red Sox was Felix Doubront, a 25-year-old left-hander from Venezuela in his fourth season for Boston. He came into the game with a 5-3 record and a 4.11 ERA.

Neither team scored in the first. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury singled to lead off for Boston, extending his hitting streak to 18 games, but was erased on a 6-4-3 double play. In the bottom of the inning, Doubront induced a lightly-hit grounder to short followed by two strikeouts, both on swinging third strikes.  

The first batter in the top of the second was Ortiz. On a 3-and-1 count, he doubled to deep left-center and thereby set the all-time record for base hits by a DH.2 There was a pause as he received a standing ovation, and the 37-year-old slugger tipped his helmet in response.3

First baseman Mike Napoli walked and left fielder Daniel Nava was hit by a pitch. The bases were loaded. No outs. Two outs followed, a run scoring each time. The first out was a sacrifice fly to left-center field hit by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, deep enough for Ortiz to tag and score but also for Napoli to tag and take third. The second out was another sacrifice fly, this time to right field, hit by shortstop José Iglesias. Napoli scored. Third baseman Brock Holt then popped up to short, but Boston was up, 2-0.

Third baseman Kyle Seager singled to center with one out in Seattle’s second, but no one else got the ball out of the infield and he remained on first base.

In the third, Ortiz got another hit – and this one was a two-run homer. With two outs, second baseman Dustin Pedroia walked. Ortiz then hit a home run into the seats in right, the 420th of his career, giving Boston a 4-0 lead.

A Brad Miller single was all the Mariners could muster against Doubront in the bottom of the inning. The Red Sox upped their lead to 5-0 in the fourth when Ellsbury doubled to center and right fielder Shane Victorino followed with a single to left, driving in the speedy Ellsbury from second.

Raul Ibanez led off the fourth with a base on balls for Seattle, but three fly-ball outs followed.

Harang set down the Red Sox in order in the fifth. The first out was Ortiz, who grounded to second base. Seattle center fielder Michael Saunders doubled off Doubront with one out in the bottom of the fifth, but never got as far as third.

After Harang allowed back-to-back singles in the sixth to Saltalamacchia and Iglesias, Wedge called on Lucas Luetge in relief.4 The left-hander got the first batter he faced, Holt, to ground into a force play at second. But Ellsbury swung at the first pitch and made it a three-hit game and a 6-0 lead, driving in Saltalamacchia with a single to right-center.

Victorino also swung at the first pitch and drove in Holt with another run with a single to left. Pedroia grounded to shortstop Miller, whose throw to second was wild for an error. Ellsbury scored, with Victorino ending up on third.

Yet another sacrifice fly – this time by Ortiz, to left-center – produced yet another run and it was 9-0, Red Sox. It gave Ortiz his 65th RBI of the season.

After the game, Eric Wedge said of Ortiz, “He’s still a force. I’ve seen too much of him over the years. He’s about as professional a hitter as you can be. Still has the bat speed, still has the power. Commands the strike zone probably as good as anyone in the game.”5

Doubront set down Seattle in order in the sixth inning, fanning Ibanez for his sixth strikeout of the game.

Carter Capps had relieved Luetge for the final out of the sixth. In the seventh, a walk, a hit batsman, and another walk loaded the bases with Boston baserunners, but Capps got out of the inning without a run.

Doubront gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh to right fielder Jason Bay, an All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner with the Red Sox in 2009. With two outs, Bay got to third on a groundout, making him the first Mariner to reach third. Catcher Henry Blanco singled to center and Bay scored, with what was finally the first run of the game for the Mariners.

Oliver Perez took over pitching for Seattle in the eighth. He retired the three Red Sox he faced, the second of whom was Ryan Lavarnway pinch-hitting for Ortiz. Lavarnway grounded out to second base.

Doubront exited with a 9-1 lead after 107 pitches and seven innings. Brandon Workman took over from Doubront. It was Workman’s major-league debut and the first batter he faced homered off him. It took eight pitches but Brendan Ryan, who had come into the game starting in the seventh, homered to left.

New left fielder Dustin Ackley, who’d replaced Ibanez at the same time Ryan had come into the game, doubled to right, and DH Kendrys Morales also doubled to right, driving in Ackley. Seager hit the ball hard to center, but it was caught for the first out. Bay struck out on four pitches. First baseman Justin Smoak doubled to center, Morales scoring. Workman struck out Saunders on three pitches. Seattle’s surge had made the score more respectable, but the Mariners were still down 9-4.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the top of the ninth, though, off Seattle’s fifth pitcher, Tom Wilhelmsen. Walks to Nava and Saltalamacchia set things up. Iglesias flied out to center, Nava taking third, from where he scored on a wild pitch to Holt. Holt then singled on the next pitch and Mike Carp singled on the seventh pitch he saw, scoring Saltalamacchia to give the Red Sox 11 runs for the second night in a row.

Workman struck out Blanco, got Miller to line out to second base, and struck out Ryan, and the game was over.6

Tampa Bay beat the Minnesota Twins in 13 innings, the Rays’ seventh win in a row, and so the Red Sox lead in the division remained 3½ games. Boston’s 8-7 win in 10 innings in the series finale on July 11 made it three wins in four games in Seattle. Ortiz was 0-for-2 in that one. He picked up 18 more hits in July, though, despite the All-Star break, and 51 more hits after that.

When Ortiz retired after the 2016 season, he had 2,472 career hits – 393 for the Minnesota Twins and then, beginning with the 2003 season, 2,079 for the Red Sox.7 As of the end of the 2022 season, no other DH has come within 1,000 hits of Ortiz’s total of 2,191 as a DH since Ortiz’s retirement. The closest is Nelson Cruz, whose total through 2022 came to 1,036, tied with Travis Hafner for ninth all-time among DHs.8

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Tim Herlich for access to Seattle newspapers and Trent McCotter for statistical information. A video of Ortiz getting the hit setting the record is offered as well.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA201307100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B07100SEA2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5uzxEo7Hto 

Notes

1 Martinez spent all 18 of his major-league seasons with the Mariners. Ortiz had begun his own career in 1994 with the Arizona League’s Mariners, playing as David Arias at the time. All three – Baines, Martinez, and Ortiz – are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

2 Based on statistics compiled by the Elias Sports Bureau, Ortiz’s double broke Baines’ mark. Another source, Baseball-Reference.com, credits Baines with 1,690 hits as a designated hitter, making Ortiz’s third-inning home run in this game the record-tier and his first-inning single off A.J. Griffin of the Oakland A’s on July 13 the record-breaker. A third source, Retrosheet.org, is consistent with Baseball-Reference.com but separates Baines’s 1,690 hits into 1,664 as a designated hitter and 26 while pinch-hitting for a designated hitter. The author thanks John Fredland of the Games Project, Baseball-Reference.com’s Adam Darowski, and Retrosheet.org’s Tom Thress for their insights into Baines’ hit totals.

3 Peter Abraham, “Ortiz, Sox Hitting on All Cylinders,” Boston Globe, July 11, 2013: C1.

4 Peter Abraham said Iglesias’s was his 19th infield hit of the season.

5 Larry Stone, “No Contest,” Seattle Times, July 11, 2013: C1.

6 Workman pitched through the 2021 season, with a record of 26-22 in 238 games (all but 18 in relief.) His career ERA is 4.02. Most of his time was with the Red Sox, for whom he was 25-16 (3.83). He was 6-3 in the 2013 season. He pitched in seven postseason games, throwing 8⅔ innings without yielding an earned run. One unearned run in Game Three of the 2013 World Series resulted in his being tagged with the loss.

7 Of his 2,472 base hits, Ortiz’s final totals were 2,191 as a DH and 268 as a first baseman. He had 13 base hits as a pinch-hitter, excluding times he pinch-hit for the DH, which are included in his DH total. He hit 485 home runs as a DH and drove in 1,568 runs.

8 Thanks to Trent McCotter for directing attention to the following listing: https://stathead.com/tiny/EY5e4. Accessed December 30, 2022.