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TORONTO -- Three weeks ago, even Red Sox owner John W. Henry suggested that it was probably unrealistic to expect David Ortiz to finish the season with 30 home runs, the number he has matched or exceeded eight times in his previous 12 seasons with Boston. That was back when others had declared open season on Ortiz and questioned whether at age 39 he was finally nearing the end of his celebrated career, enfeebled by a slow bat that could not keep pace with the hard throwers regularly getting the best of him. But now, even before hitting his seventh home run in his past 19 games in Boston's 4-3 win over Toronto -- which gives him a total of 13 and puts him on pace for 27 this season -- Ortiz is ridiculing the suggestion he has lost bat speed.  "I don't know why people go there,'' he said. "Why don't they throw me 96 miles an hour right down [the middle]. Tell all the pitchers to throw me fastballs 96 right down the [middle]. See if I lost bat speed. "People like to criticize a lot about the game. I don't think people are sitting down watching the game. Oh, he lost bat speed? Why don't they throw me a fastball every pitch?'' Tuesday night in the third inning, Ortiz took a changeup for a strike from Jays starter Marco Estrada. When Estrada's next pitch was also a changeup, Ortiz launched it off the facade of the second deck in Rogers Centre. "Four hundred and eighty feet,'' he loudly declared, the pride in his voice as obvious as one of his trademark bat flips. "And on a changeup. Why did he throw me back-to-back? Because that's all he's got.'' Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays and their ace, Chris Archer, who routinely throws in the high 90s, Ortiz homered on a slider. When he came to the plate the next time, Archer fell behind 3-and-0, then threw a slider. "Three-and-0 slider,'' Ortiz said. "The guy who throws 97, Archer. Why do you think they do that? Bat speed. The people who talk about bat speed have no idea what bat speed is all about.'' Ortiz was unimpressed that some of the people who have said he is losing bat speed are scouts and other talent evaluators within the game. "You know why they talk?'' he said. "They want to make noise. They want people to listen to them. There's a reason a guy who throws 97 throws me a 3-and-0 slider, because he knows what I can do with a fastball. "I don't like the knowledge people have about the game today. They just want attention. When you say Papi's lost bat speed, you're just calling people's attention. "Tell those pitchers who throw 97 to throw me fastballs all the time. Show them b---- what that's all about. Talk about bat speed. "Tell them to throw me fastballs. Bat speed,'' Ortiz said before chuckling and walking away.
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