Notes: Ortiz wants to hit leadoff?

RED SOX-BLUE JAYS REPORT
Red Sox battle rain, Jays for 5-0 win

McAdam: Sox have hope, need help to make playoffs

Buchholz looks Cy worthy

Bill Hall provides unexpected pop

Notes: Ortiz wants to hit leadoff?

By Sean McAdam and Maureen Mullen
CSNNE.com

BOSTON -- David Ortiz, not surprisingly, doesn't hit a lot of triples. So when he gets one, he savors it.

Ortiz tripled to center to lead off the fifth inning Sunday in the Red Sox' 5-0 shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays and wore a smile as he stood on third base.

It was his first of the season and 15th of his career.

Asked if he made the decision to head for third as soon as he hit second base, Ortiz offered a straight-faced response: "Definitely, man. I got speed. I'm a speed killer . . . I've been watching guys run a long time, so I picked some things up.''

As if to emphasize the point, Ortiz yelled into manager Terry Francona's office that he expected to hit leadoff Monday.

Ortiz joined Johnny Damon and Carlos Guillen as the only American Leaguers with at least one triple in each of the last 11 seasons. Ortiz has exactly one triple in each of the last four years. His career high was three, reached in 2004.

He later contributed an RBI single in the win Sunday and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games at a .321 clip. Dating back to July 22, after shaking off something of a post-All-Star break slump, Ortiz is hitting .308.

Kevin Cash played in a rehab game with Single-A Lowell Sunday, catching seven innings and going 1-for-4 with a  double.  The Spinners' game was delayed for about an hour at the start because of rain. But, with the Sox game delayed for a total of 2 hours and 43 minutes, Cash was able to make it back to Fenway by the sixth inning and warm up Felix Doubront in the ninth.

Daniel Bard recorded his 27th hold of the season with a scoreless seventh inning, tying Hideki Okajima’s team record, set in 2007.

Jed Lowrie had his career-high nine-game hitting snapped.  He hit .357 (10-for-28) with seven runs, three doubles, three home runs, five RBI, and seven walks in his streak.

Marco Scutaro also had a hitting streak snapped; his lasted eight games. He hit .406 (13-for-32) with six runs scored, four doubles, three RBI, and three walks in his streak.

Sean McAdam can be reached at smcadam@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Sean on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sean_mcadam

Maureen Mullen is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MaureenaMullen