Ortiz talks to Price, says everything is fine

ST. PETERSBURG -- Including the postseason, David Ortiz has belted 445 home runs in his career. Many of them have been majestic shots that he watched and admired, reminiscent of another left-handed slugger back in the day named Reggie Jackson.

David Price, who became thoroughly frustrated by a 7-4 loss to the Red Sox in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League Division Series on Saturday night, voiced his displeasure after the game about Ortiz watching the second of his two home runs.

But by the end of Sunday's workout, Ortiz said that everything was fine between the slugger and Tampa Bay's ace pitcher.

"It's over. You know, we talked," Ortiz said. "We straightened things out. I have a lot of respect for David, and he does the same for me. I'm not going to make a big deal out of this. I understand his frustration. He's a good pitcher. He's a guy that wants to see results every time we go out there. Sometimes things get out of hand. When you don't see those results, you feel sometimes frustrated about them. But everything's fine."

Ortiz declined to elaborate on who reached out to whom. Price was unavailable for comment.

"We talked," Ortiz said. "It doesn't matter how we got to talk but we did, we talked."

Ortiz was in one of his typically gregarious moods on Sunday. During batting practice, he hit moon shots with an aluminum bat.

Why?

"I feel like it," quipped Ortiz. "The ball doesn't jump out of the aluminum bat like it used to."

Ortiz will bring his standard wooden model to Monday night's Game 3 (6 p.m. ET on TBS). But he'll likely wear a uniform instead of the much more casual attire he had at Tropicana Field on Sunday.

While the rest of Ortiz's teammates were in their standard batting-practice uniforms, Big Papi had on a black shirt, black sweat pants and sneakers.

"That was black on black," laughed Ortiz. "[Dustin Pedroia] thought I was going to yoga."