BALTIMORE The boos were waiting for David Ortiz as soon as he stepped to the plate in the first inning.
His assault of a dugout phone and the ejection that followed Saturday night caused the fans at Camden Yards to vilify him in the Red Sox series finale with the Orioles Sunday.
As loud the din was when he stepped to the plate it couldn t drown out the playfully ironic music beating through the speakers Young Jeezy s Lose My Mind.
Ortiz s ground single through the shift didn t quiet them immediately although it extended the inning long enough for Mike Napoli to drive an RBI double to right field to put the Orioles in an early hole.
But when Ortiz returned in the third inning with Jacoby Ellsbury on first and two outs he only needed three pitches to turn the volume down.
He shot Jason Hammel s 2 and 0 slider over the left field wall for a two run blast trotted calmly around the bases and tapped his chest and pointed to the sky as he crossed the plate.
When Ortiz turned to make his way back to the dugout taking some small pleasure in pulling the plug on 32 891 fans he made a small gesture. He put his finger to his lips telling them all Shhhhhh.
Ortiz s 4 for 4 two RBI day propped up the Sox offense in what ended up a 5 0 win and it was hard not to see it as an immediate response to his late game meltdown the night before.
Entering this weekend set the Sox had struggled against the Orioles. Through the first six games of a 10 game stretch in the AL East they were 3 3 slightly reeling after being dominated by Tampa Bay s scorching hot lefthanded pitchers.
But they were able to rediscover an offense that had seemed to wander off recently putting up 20 hits and 12 runs in two wins to close out the series against Baltimore.
Napoli went 2 for 4 with two doubles and Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 2 for 4 with a double. Jacoby Ellsbury went 2 for 5 with a run.
In his second start since taking two extra days to rest after the All Star break Jon Lester pounded the zone with his fastball throwing 65 of his 99 pitches for strikes. He worked seven innings striking out eight and picking up his 10th win of the season.
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow globe.com.
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