Ortiz Gets Cortisone Shot

David Ortiz had a cortisone shot in his left shoulder on Wednesday.

It's feeling better than what it was, [but] the shoulder doesn't get better until you shut things down for a period of time. ... It's just going to keep on bothering me on and off.

Steve Buckley notes that Ortiz realizes he needs days off here and there ("If I'm not feeling well, I'm going to let them know. Sometimes I act stupid and I try to play."). From the Herald:

Rather than wincing and grimacing each time he swings a bat - the pain is at its worst when he misses a pitch, he said - Ortiz has chosen, finally, and perhaps reluctantly, to take himself out of the lineup on those nights when he feels he's not up to the task. ... We've seen athletes who "play in pain," which surely is the noble thing to so, but then their bodies get so ravaged that it's not unfair to whisper about long-term effects. ... Why play him every day and have him so worn down and achy that he's more or less done by the time he's 36?

Wily Mo Pena's agent, Josh Zeide, says that while WMP would like more playing time, he does not want to be traded. "His preference would be to stay in Boston and to help the team win a World Series this year."