Well, dropping David Ortiz from third to sixth in the batting order has neither improved Ortiz nor the Red Sox. In fact, things have gotten worse for both.
In his five games as the No. 6 hitter, the Red Sox have yet to score more than three runs in any of them. Right now the Red Sox have been held to three runs or less in more than one-third of their games with the season just about one-third over, too high a ratio for them to remain as genuine contenders in the AL East no matter how good their pitching is.
And their starting pitching, while improving, is still a long way from being what it's expected to be. But that's another story.
Ortiz is 2-for-19 with one walk, no runs, no RBI, and 6 strikeouts since his demotion in the batting order. To be fair, the few balls he has hit hard have been atom balls right at the fielders. But he has hit too few balls hard.
What happened to the guy with so much bat speed I saw him pull a 99-mph fastball from Phillies closer Billy Wagner over the first-base side luxury suites at Fenway a couple of years ago?
I thought Ortiz might be coming out of his funk a couple of weeks ago when he started hitting more balls to left field, like he did when he first came to the Red Sox and hit a high number of balls off and over The Wall. Going back to basics is often a good recipe for getting your swing back. But ever since he hit his first -- and only -- homer on the last home stand, he's gone back to trying to pull everything, and he's regressed.
Those who criticized Terry Francona for sticking with Ortiz in the No. 3 spot too long now know why he did. Not only were the Red Sox winning enough to be in first place despite Ortiz' lack of contributions, dropping him to sixth only proved the old baseball adage that there's no place in the lineup to hide a slump-ridden hitter.
He's going to come up with runners on base in key situations no matter where you bat him.