We all know that David Ortiz has been struggling at the plate this season and he’s been doing his best to get out of said slump. Tonight we finally got to see the trademark smile of Big Papi as his grand slam helped lead the Boston Red Sox past the Texas Rangers 11-3 in front of 37,902 at the Fens.

The grand slam was the first hit of the season at Fenway for Big Papi (he had been 0-18). He finished the game 2-for-4 with 5 RBIs. Dustin Pedroia added a 2-run home run for the Sox as well. Jed Lowrie continued his hot start as he was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury was 1-for-2 with 3 walks, an RBI and 3 runs scored while Sean Casey continues to swing a hot stick as he had 2 hits in the game.

Daisuke Matsuzaka started for the Red Sox and wasn’t at his best tonight but was still good enough to get his fourth win of the season. Dice-K went 5 1/3 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs, walked 2 while striking out 4 on 101 pitches. Pitching coach John Farrell said after the game that’s where they wanted Matsuzaka to be as far as his pitch count in the game.

Javier Lopez went 1 2/3 innings, striking out 1 while David Aardsma went an inning giving up a hit and 2 walks. Mike Timlin mopped up in the 9th working a perfect inning.

The Rangers struck first in the 3rd inning. Dice-K got a ground out by Ben Broussard followed by an Ian Kinsler double. With Michael Young at the dish, Kinsler stole third. Young eventually worked a walk. Josh Hamilton brought home Kinsler with a sacrifice fly. Dice-K struck out Milton Bradley to end the inning.

Luis Mendoza, a former draft pick of the Red Sox, was on the hill for the Rangers and had shut down the Red Sox in the first two innings and also got the first two batters of the 3rd. Then the wheels fell of the proverbial bus.

Lowrie broke up the no-no with a slicing double into the left field corner. Ellsbury and Pedroia both worked walks to load up the bases for Big Papi. On the first pitch, Big Papi hit a fastball left over the middle of the plate into the Green Monstah seats to put the Sox up 4-1. When he got to the dugout, his teammates gave him the cold shoulder for a few (video here). Manny Ramirez followed that with a single
but Mendoza got Kevin Youkilis to ground out for the final out.

The local nine struck again in the 4th. J.D. Drew led off with a walk and Jason Varitek hit a RBI double which put the Sox up 5-1. Casey singled moving to Varitek to third and chasing Mendoza from the game. Ryan Rupe came in and gave up a sacrifice fly to Lowrie making it 6-1. Ellsbury laced a triple over the head of Hamilton in center bringing in Casey for a 7-1 lead. Pedroia made it 9-1 with his 2-run homer and the rout was on.

Texas chased Dice-K from the game in the 6th inning. After Hamilton flew out to start the inning, Bradley hit a ground rule double to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. He came around to score when Hank Blalock hit a 2-run homer into the Red Sox bullpen to cut the lead to 9-3. Lopez came in and sandwiched a walk around two outs to finish the inning.

The Red Sox would add two more runs in the 8th inning, one on an RBI single from Big Papi and the second on an error by Rangers first baseman Jason Botts as he muffed the throw into him.

Jon Lester will toe the rubber for the Sox tomorrow night and look to rebound from his recent struggles. Kevin Millwood gets the ball for the Rangers.

Notes and musings:

Boxscore

Don’t forget that tomorrow night’s game will be on the NESN Plus channel. The Red Sox pre-game show will get under way at 5:30 PM before giving way to the Bruins pre-game show at 6:30.

David Murphy and Kason Gabbard received their World Series rings earlier in the afternoon. Both were traded the Rangers in the Eric Gagné deal.

Manny Ramirez produced his 50th multihomer game on Thursday, moving him past Eddie Mathews and Mel Ott into sole possession of 11th place on the all-time list. It was his 28th with the Red Sox, tying David Ortiz for the 3rd most in club history.

Fans attending the Sunday and Monday games are encouraged to use public transportation wherever possible.

Jonathan Papelbon leads the A.L. with 16 relief strikeouts on his 24 outs…Of the last 19 outs recorded, 15 have come on strikeouts.