The (cautious) return of Papi?

I have been one of the naysayers. I will admit it. When he continually struggled early in the season I was one of those who said, "Papi may be done". He looked old, he looked slow. He couldn't catch up to the fastball and he was pulling almost nothing. All his hits (the very very few he did have) were to left. Even the first home run he hit was off a wide-eyed rookie who was getting killed by the whole line-up that night and allowed 4 home runs in the inning.

But then the Yankees came to town. Papi had two home runs at that point (granted the second barely made it over the wall to hit Pesky's Pole, not exactly one of the signature Ortiz towering right field bombs). He went deep off of A.J. Burnett, but some people even dismissed that one as it was to straight away center (and incidentally not far from my seats) and Burnett was not exactly on his "A" game that night.

Then the next one came off of Sabathia, one of the toughest left handed pitchers in the game and it was a bomb (I saw it in person and Johnny Damon didn't even move a muscle in left field). Suddenly, Ortiz had 4 home runs with 3 in a span of 5 games and he had a 7-game hitting streak thrown in. His batting average wasn't getting over the Mendoza line by much but it was creeping ever slowly higher and some of his hits were actually heading to right field. There was reason for hope.

Last night was finally what every Red Sox fan has been waiting for. A towering right field blast by David Ortiz in what would be the beginning of a watershed 6-run inning (including another 2 RBI hit by Ortiz) that propelled the Sox to an 8-3 victory over the Marlins.

I am not suggesting that the slump is completely behind him. He's still striking out a lot and at times he still seems overmatched by a pitcher with a good hard fastball. But the signs are there. He is driving balls and they are making it out of the ballpark. He may never be a 50 home run guy again but, if he can build on his recent success, there may still be a few clutch hits and/or bombs in Big Papi's arsenal. Red Sox Nation continues to hope.