VIDEO: David Ortiz records career-high 7 RBIs, moves into 4th on Red Sox RBIs list
David Ortiz paid homage to his good friend Pedro Martinez - who was officially enshrined in Cooperstown on Sunday - the only way he knows how.
The Boston Red Sox slugger unleashed two home runs - the 484th and 485th blasts of his career - while recording a career-high seven RBIs in an 11-1 thumping of the Detroit Tigers.
Big Papi got the party started with a massive three-run bomb in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie. He then added an RBI single in the sixth before sending another three-run shot over the Green Monster in the seventh.
Here's a look at both of Ortiz's home runs, his 18th and 19th of the year:
(Courtesy: MLB.com)
"That's why they call him 'Big Papi,'" said Ortiz's teammate Eduardo Rodriguez.
Ortiz is now eight homers shy of tying Fred McGriff and Lou Gehrig (493 homers) for 27th on the all-time list. He also now has the fourth-most RBIs in franchise history with 1,349, passing Dwight Evans' mark of 1,346.
The seven-RBI outburst vaulted the 39-year-old past Hall of Famers Al Kaline, Rogers Hornsby, and Harmon Killebrew into 38th on the all-time RBI list in one night, increasing his career total to 1,587.
After the game, Ortiz talked about his struggles at the plate, and bearing the burden of the Red Sox's difficult 2015 season.
"When you're a guy like myself and the ballclub is losing games, it gets in your head a little bit," he said.
Ortiz said he watched Martinez's Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday afternoon, and when asked what his former teammate would have been doing had he been in the Red Sox dugout Sunday night, Ortiz was straight and to the point:
"He'd be hugging me all night."