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David Ortiz

David Ortiz has a midsummer break. It's not something he's used to. For the past five years, he has represented the American League at the All-Star game, but not this year, not with a .222 batting average.

It wasn't that long ago you had fair reason to wonder if Ortiz would be representing the Red Sox as their designated hitter.

At the start of June, he was only batting .185 and didn't have the power numbers to make that look better.

One home run won't help you overlook a player sinking under the Mendoza Line (.200).

Manager Terry Francona finally had to move Ortiz to the lower half of the batting order, putting Big Papi in a position he hadn't been in for more than five years.

Fans wondered if it was just a stop along the road to the end of a tremendous Red Sox career.

It wasn't.

Ortiz has been swinging his way back into the heart of the Boston batting order. Since June 6, he has hit 11 home runs, the second-highest total in the league during that stretch.

Since the final day of May, he is 33 of 120 (.275), raising his overall batting average by 37 points.

Ortiz was back in the cleanup spot Saturday night as the Sox faced the Kansas City Royals.

It wasn't a permanent move, but it was clearly a sign his manager once again had faith in him.

Faith has been rewarded repeatedly since Francona became the Red Sox manager back in 2004, and it was rewarded again Saturday.

Ortiz crushed his 12th homer of the season, a two-run shot that landed about 10 rows behind the bullpen.

"I think a few people owe David Ortiz an apology," Francona said before Sunday's game. "He's been the face of this franchise for a long time."

Big Papi has no reason to apologize. His swagger is back, and so is his pop.

He wrapped up the unofficial first half of the season with a milestone series.

First, he hit his 300th career home run in the loss to the Royals on Thursday.

He followed that two days later with the gargantuan homer that was also his 1,000th career hit.

Now, as we pause for the All-Star break, we have to take stock of Ortiz's turnaround over the last seven weeks.

Just as importantly, we have to look ahead to what we reasonably can expect from him in the weeks ahead.

What would it take to make Red Sox fans satisfied with Ortiz's 2009 season?

Ortiz battled wrist and knee injuries over the course of last season and hit fewer than 30 homers for the first time since arriving in Boston.

Now, after hitting one homer in the first two months of this season, he is hitting them in bunches.

He hit seven in June and already has four in July.

If he hits three more this month and seven a month in August and September, he'll be closing in on 30 once again.

It would be an incredible total for a man most fans thought was aging rapidly before their eyes.

By the way, Ortiz also is driving in runs. He has 47 RBI for the season, third on the team, and is on a pace to end the season with close to 90.

Would a 30-homer, 90-RBI season be enough to silence the doubters? Absolutely.

There is another season on the contract Ortiz signed in 2006, and the Red Sox also have a club option for 2011.

Picking up that option was unthinkable a few months ago.

Now, as we watch Ortiz recapture the form that once led team owners to call him "the best clutch hitter in Red Sox history," it's not a preposterous idea at all.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.