Red Sox ride Big Papi right into the top 10; Rays clinging on to top spot

The swagger of David Ortiz is back. Emboldened by his hot hitting in May -- he's belted nine home runs, raised his average 123 points and ranks second only to teammate Kevin Youkilis in OPS this month -- Boston's designated hitter is starting to show his old moxie. In a radio interview last Thursday, Ortiz said he was "absolutely mad" when manager Terry Francona lifted him for a pinch hitter in April. "You gotta believe in your players, period," Ortiz continued. "You choose to have me on your roster since Day 1. You gotta ride with me." Then on Monday, after hitting a bomb at Tropicana Field, Ortiz completed his home run trot in 30.59 seconds, the first player in 2010 to take longer than 30 seconds to round the bases, according to wezen-ball.com.

On Wednesday Ortiz batted third for the first time in nearly a year and promptly homered again, but his best at-bat of the day came in the top of the ninth. The Rays summoned sidewinding lefty Randy Choate to face Ortiz, who drilled a hard single through the left side of the infield and away from the shift. It was a sound piece of hitting in a tough matchup that more than any home run shows how locked in Big Papi is right now.

As he goes, so go the Red Sox. Winners of eight of their last nine, including a three-game sweep in Tampa Bay, the Sox are in third place in the American League East for the first time since April 28 and make their top-10 debut in the SI.com Power Rankings.

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