It was news to David Ortiz.
When told Tuesday night he was one of baseball's most prolific hitters on 3-0 counts during his stretch with the Red Sox, the former slugger was caught off guard.
"I had no idea," he told WEEI.com. "But I know I swung at a lot of 3-0. Pitchers would always try and get me chasing bad pitches. They were always going to get me to chase pitches out of the strike zone and once I figured that out I started seeing a lot of 3-0."
Nobody in the history of the Red Sox came close to putting as many balls in play on 3-0 counts, with Ortiz making those moments count more than anyone, as well. For his career in Boston, the designated hitter totaled 56 at-bats on 3-0 counts, 30 more than runner-up John Valentin. The results were striking with Ortiz coming away with 25 hits for a .446 batting average.
So when the hottest topic in baseball -- Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting a grand slam on a 3-0 count with his team leading by seven runs -- came up, Ortiz seemed like a logical person to turn to for educated analysis.
"(Expletive), I swing," Ortiz said with a chuckle. "I don’t care. I don’t even know why they’re making a big deal about it."
He added, "I don’t care. To be honest, in baseball there are some rules that aren’t really rules but game situations. But I’ll tell you what, the way guys pitch nowadays I don’t mind. I was watching a White Sox game the other day and they threw a 3-0 changeup to (Jose) Abreu. I was like, ‘Whoa!’ You don’t know what to expect. Normally when there is a big lead you normally don’t swing the bat, but it was 10-3.
"The pitcher put himself in that situation. Anytime teams can come back and score seven runs. If you told me 15-1 or something like that. But 10-3? Nope. That’s not wide open. Anything can happen."
Sure enough, the percentage of fastballs thrown by major league pitchers on 3-0 counts has dipped every season since 2016.
It's an evolution Ortiz certainly noticed as his career progressed, who never did swing at a 3-0 pitch in a postseason game.
"Now you have guys throwing 100 mph and they throw you a changeup 3-0. It’s not like before," he noted. "When they throw 100 mph you were just expecting 94 mph on the plate. Not now. I don’t know why they’re making such a big deal. I want to have a 10-run and then I don’t swing. That guarantees a win. But a seven-run lead doesn’t guarantee anything unless it’s the ninth inning and you have Mariano Rivera on the mound."
The most home runs on 3-0 counts in big league history belongs to Jim Thome, who accomplished the feat 17 times, collecting 31 hits out of the 63 times he put the ball in play in such scenarios. ("Dang," exclaimed Ortiz when informed of Hall-of-Famer's accomplishment.)
But when it comes to the Red Sox, Ortiz remains the 3-0 expert.
"It's simple," he said, "I just knew when it was my time to swing."