on May 20. "It's frustrating not being able to play", he said. "Watching baseball is not something I like to do." Youkilis was picked to be a reserve on the AL 2009 All-Star team by Tampa Bay and AL manager Joe Maddon, after coming in second in the fan vote to Mark Teixeira, 3,309,050–3,069,906. On August 6, 2009, with the Red Sox suffering numerous injuries, Youkilis played left field for the first time since he played 18 games there in 2006. On August 8, he again played left field, and made a couple of twists and turns on a fly ball hit by Johnny Damon before committing an error. On August 11, 2009, after 6' 5" pitcher Rick Porcello of the Detroit Tigers hit him in the back with an 89 mph pitch, Youkilis immediately charged Porcello on the mound. Youkilis threw his helmet at the fast back-pedaling Porcello, and Porcello tackled Youkilis, both went down, and both benches cleared. Both players were tossed from the game, and each received a five-game suspension. Hearing that his friend and former minor league teammate Greg Montalbano had died of testicular cancer at the age of 31 late on August 21, Youkilis dedicated his next game to his friend's memory. After inscribing "GM" in marker on his cap, he hit two home runs in the game against the Yankees, while driving in six runs. Both times as he crossed home plate, he looked up and pointed to the sky. "That was for him", Youkilis said. "There are some crazy things that have happened in my life. You … feel like there's somebody out there somewhere pushing balls out for you, and doing great things." In 2009, Youkilis was second in the AL in OBP (.413) and OPS (.961), fourth in hit by pitch (16), fifth in slugging percentage (.548), and batted .305 overall and .362 with runners in scoring position. He also led the AL in pitches per plate appearance (4.42), was sixth in batting average on balls in play (.363), and 10th in walk percentage (13.6%). "Statistically, if you consider 2008 and 2009, you could make the case there has been no better player in the league [in that time]", said Red Sox EVP Epstein. Of the players with 1,000 plate appearances in the AL over the 2008–09 seasons, none had a higher OPS than Youkilis (.960). In the field, while Youkilis