Don't look now, but here come the revived Red Sox

Big Papi, David Ortiz, has come to life in May and he's bringing the Red Sox with him. (Icon SMI)

By Ben Cook, Lindyssports.com

They are still in fourth place, but keep an eye on the Boston Red Sox.

They’re coming on.

With a one-hit victory over Tampa Bay Tuesday night by Jon Lester and the Boston bullpen, the Red Sox have won four in a row, including two straight over the Rays, and have put seven victories on the board in their last eight games.

With a .553 winning percentage, Boston would be in second in the AL West, third in the AL Center, second in the NL East and third in both the NL Central and West. Yet Boston is in fourth in baseball’s toughest division, the AL East.

But don’t overlook Terry Francona’s team.

“We're just playing better baseball,” said Lester. “It's what we kept saying from the beginning. We weren't playing good baseball; we were not playing smart baseball. Our starters weren't going deep in the game. Now we're getting on a little bit of a roll. Like we kept saying, we get on a roll, we start playing better baseball, this is a good team. I don't think people really believed us, but we are a good team and we're going to keep grinding it out.”

With two consecutive wins at Tampa Bay, the Red Sox are now 6½ behind the league leading Rays, who have baseball’s best record.

Pitching has been the backbone of the May resurgence that has seen Boston win 15 games after starting the month with two losses.

“Hitters feed off each other. Pitchers feed off each other. You find different ways to win and it feeds off of it,” said catcher Jason Varitek.

In the last four wins, Boston’s pitching staff had posted an ERA of 0.32 and thrown two one-hitters. It’s easy to win when your pitching staff shuts down the opposing team.

But one thing that has helped is the Boston offense has had a good month.

After another horrendous start, David Ortiz has come back to life in the month of May. He’s up to nine home runs, 25 RBIs and a .258 batting average. That is even more impressive when you consider he entered May hitting .143 with one long ball and four runs driven in. In May, he’s .359 with eight home runs and 21 RBIs. He has hits in 14 of 18 games and has enjoyed eight multi-hit games.

“We're playing well. That's how you build it up,” said Ortiz.

Ortiz doubled home two runs in the Wednesday victory and hit what second baseman Dutin Pedroia called a laser of a home run in Monday’s win over the Rays.

“Definition of it — it really was,” Pedroia said. “He swung the bat great. That ball was out of here in a hurry. Hopefully he keeps it going.”

The rest of the American League hopes he doesn’t. When Ortiz and the Red Sox got off to bad started in April, they crossed their fingers and hoped that Ortiz was over the hill and the Red Sox were aging and out of it. But, of course, neither was the case.

The Red Sox are going to be right in the thick of the race. They still have to climb over Toronto to get back behind the Yankees and Rays, but there is plenty of time left.

“We're playing some really good teams and finding some ways to win, said Pedroia. “That's a good sign because earlier in the year, we got swept against the Rays at home, we really weren't playing very well. We had some games we could have won and let it slip away.

“Hopefully we can find ways to win.”