Red Sox DH David Ortiz, who is eligible to come off the disabled list today, said that he woke up today "feeling a little better," but that the tendinitis in his Achilles continues to linger. As such, while he is getting closer to a return, he suggested that he is still at least a couple days off from the necessary agility tests on the field to permit him to play.
"The doctor checked me out every day and he found less tendinitis on my Achilles [today] so that's good. ... I feel better today than days before. Hopefully it continues feeling better everyday so I can go back into the fire," he said. "I haven't done anything outside yet. I'll do things outside probably in the next two or three days."
That said, despite what he characterized as considerable improvement, Ortiz acknowledged that he is "not yet" completely pain-free when walking, and so he is not yet at the point where team trainers will put him through the exercise of running on the field.
The Sox are 7-7 since Ortiz suffered his injury on July 16. The DH was amidst an 11-game hitting streak, including a historic streak of 10 straight games in which he had at least one hit and one walk in every game. Over that 10-game stretch, he was hitting .452/.614/.677/1.291. He is hitting .316/.414/.609/1.024 with 23 homers and 58 RBI, and he's leading the American League in OBP, slugging and OPS.
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