Ortiz to DL, Gomez returns to roster

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, in his weekly interview on WEEI's The Big Show, said that the second opinion on David Ortiz's injured right Achilles aligned with the first diagnosis, suggesting that the DH will be unavailable for 10-14 days as a result of the injury he incurred on Monday while running the bases after Adrian Gonzalez's home run. As such, Valentine said, Ortiz will be placed on the 15-day disabled list. In his absence, slugger Mauro Gomez has been called back up from Triple-A Pawtucket.

Said Valentine: "He got a second opinion and it was the same opinion he got here, which said that he's gong to be 10 to 14 days, so we're putting him on the disabled list and we're activating Mauro Gomez."

Ortiz is hitting .316 with a .414 OBP, .609 slugging mark, 1.024 OPS, 23 homers and 58 RBI. He had an 11-game hitting streak, including a run of 10 straight games with at least one hit and one walk, at the time of his injury.

Gomez is hitting .308/.333/.423/.756 in eight games this year, having played both first and third base for the Sox. In Triple-A Pawtucket, he's been one of the top performers in the International League, hitting .317/.371/.634/1.005 with 20 homers and 49 extra-base hits in 73 games.

Valentine said the team will take a mix-and-match approach at DH until Ortiz is healthy.

"I don't think there's a guy who has DH next to his name," Valentine said. "We'll try to figure our the lineup that matches up the best with the people that he have and go to battle."

Carl Crawford returned this week from an elbow injury and has hit second with success in his first two games back. Valentine wouldn't say what will happen when Dustin Pedroia returns, calling a potential logjam at the No. 2 spot "creating another controversy" on the media and fans' part.  

"I don't think there will be a problem," he said. "When I looked at the records here, Dustin's batted a lot of places in the order. We'll figure out what's best for the team and what's best for Dustin. He's so important to our team that what we're looking for right now is just getting him healthy and getting him back in the lineup."

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