The top half of the fourth inning was the most enjoyable half inning of baseball I have witnessed in 2004.

Three home runs by three players with wonderfully contrasting styles. Manny hit an 0-1 pitch out to dead centerfield by virtue of his swing that combines mechanical precision with violent power. Manny creamed the slightly high pitch and right after he hit it, I just yelled, “what!?!”, as if I were uttering aloud what Manny was thinking as he swung. “How dare you even think you are getting me on that pitch?”

David Ortiz came up next. His home run was majestic. His gorgeous, uppercut swing resulted in a towering fly ball that anyone watching knew the field of play would be unable to contain. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are both sluggers of the highest orders and yet they get it done in strikingly different manners. Manny is precise, fundamentally perfect and hits the ball with dumbfounding authority. David Ortiz, due mostly to his size, is equally powerful. But whereas Manny uses the six iron to muscle the ball with a nice trajectory a long way, Ortiz can crush the sand wedge. His is ball flight reaches unthinkable heights and is, to me at least, poetic.

The final home run in the inning was smacked by new Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Like the smallish but proud, strong kid on the playground that wants to stake out his claim, Cabrera seemingly just wanted to establish his presence. As though he had no idea he is an undersized middle infielder, Cabrera took a Hank Aaron-esque, violent cut at a mistake from Bllue Jay pitcher Josh Towers and blasted a four-bagger of his own over the left field fence.

I won’t soon forget that inning. The Sox went on to win 11-5 and now come home to face the Detroit Tigers for four games at Fenway.