Welcome back, folks. Let’s get right into it…

On Wednesday afternoon, the Boston Business Journal announced that David Ortiz has purchased the Metro 9 Steakhouse in Framingham, and will change the name to Big Papi’s. One of the highlights of the menu will be a special Dominican single malt scotch. It’s only aged 32 years, but you’ll swear it’s been at least 36.

Thursday afternoon in Faneuil Hall, Jason Bay was one of 360 people to be sworn in as an U.S. citizen. Bay said that his first act as an official American would be to "start hating soccer."

In this week’s MLB All-Star news, Kevin Youkilis has leap frogged Mark Teixiera and now holds a 40,000 vote lead. Although Teixiera has already said that his wife will only let him him play if the game takes place close to Baltimore.

On the field, it was a week of ups and downs for the Sox.

On Tuesday night, the team had a 10-1 lead in the eighth inning but ended up losing 11-10 in extras.

John Smoltz went the first four innings, but was unable to return after the rain delay, when Terry Francona found the elder Smoltz snoring shirtless in a clubhouse recliner with the remote in his hand.

But the next night, the Sox got one back, coming back from four runs in the ninth, and eventually winning it in the 11th on a Julio Lugo single. 

David Ortiz seems to have regained his Big Papi status of late, and the timing could not have been better because the Dominican slugger will soon be lending his nickname to a restaurant in Framingham, the Boston Business Journal reports.

David Ortiz is swinging for the fences, this time with a restaurant that will mix traditional steakhouse fare with high end burgers and salads.

The Red Sox slugger has taken a financial stake in Metro 9 Steak House in Framingham, which will be renamed Big Papi’s, the restaurant’s owner confirmed with the MetroWest Daily News late Tuesday.

(Metro 9 sounds like the name of a local news team.)

Peter Sarmanian, president of Classic Restaurant Concepts LLC, which owns Metro 9 along with The Kinsale in Boston, The Asgard in Cambridge and Desmond O’Malley’s in Framingham, told MetroWest the revamped eatery will complete its transition by the end of July, but remain open in the interim weeks.

A help wanted advertisement on the online marketplace Craigslist says the restaurant is hiring “for all staff positions including servers, bartenders, cocktail servers, food runners, bussers, hostesses and cooks.”

 This kind of business always works out. Just ask Bernie Kosar.

When the season started and you looked at this roster you had to believe that this team was indeed the team to beat in the American League.  One of the main reasons was the pitching staff.  The bullpen has been as advertised. But to me the biggest difference was the one thing that no other team can match, Josh Beckett and John Lester.  They are by far the best 1-2 punch in baseball, making them extremely difficult to defeat come October.  Whether it’s a 5 game series or a 7 game series, you can’t like your chances having to face these 2 guys four times.  So we all agree that they are built for the sprint, but what about the marathon?  The rest of the rotation is starting to come together.  Wake has been "Mr Consistency" from day one.  Penny has looked better and better with every start.   That final spot in the rotation has been a little shaky as of late but you can only hope that John Smoltz will come out and show us more of what he did in the 5th inning, as opposed to what we saw from him early in his first start. 

When you look at how this team has been playing in the month of June, it shouldn’t surprise you that the Sox are having their best month of the season.  The reason?  Very simple…starting pitching.  Let’s look at the top four in the rotation and how they’ve been doing so far this month

This is a semi-regular feature here at Red Sox Blog, as we ask Don Orsillo’s decapitated bobblehead to use a familiar baseball term — three up, three down — to hand out compliments and insults to Red Sox players, coaches, owners, beat writers, broadcasters, groundskeepers, sideline reporters and inferior opponents.

Take it away, Decap…

Up: All right, Smoltz, no pressure, no pressure. Eck and I will be shining your pate from the press box this evening, my follicle-challenged friend, so you just go out and do what’s expected of ya, i.e., don’t blow this sweep against the Nationals!

Down: Bob Ryan, would it kill ya to smile once in a while? You’re on Around the Horn on a regular basis, basically representing the Boston media on the WWL (well, you and Jackie Mac, who seems incapable of saying "Hey, the sun’s out" in less than 54 words) and you rarely smile. Bob, you’re a sportswriter, you’ve convinced people to pay you to watch men play children’s games, so stop acting like a guy awaiting the results of a prostrate exam and start acting like you’ve got the game beat.

Up: Canadian native Jason Bay told WEEI he’s becoming an American citizen on July 2. "I figure I might as well since this is where I’ll be working for probably the rest of my career," Bay said. "It’s just a natural progression." I guess Blue Jays fans should abandon any hope of signing Bay this offseason. 

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make. Or in the case of the Red Sox and David Ortiz, sometimes the best options are the players already in house.

As Sully Baseball nicely puts it, the recent surge from Big Papi basically stands as a great in-season trade — the Sox with themselves — as Ortiz was giving the team next to nothing for the first two-plus months of the season. With Ortiz now coming around (and hopefully staying a while), the team acquired an All-Star-caliber designated hitter for nothing.

The Red Sox had a rotten DH going into the Yankees series on June 9.

He had 2 homers, was batting .197 and had an OPS of .596.
It was a hole in the lineup who left the equivalent of a small county on base.

His very name in the lineup made Red Sox fans squirm.

Then they swapped that DH for a new DH…

Suddenly the new DH blossomed! He homered twice against New York.

Since June 9th, the new DH has batted .342 with 5 homers and 11 RBI… including a go ahead 3 run bomb last night.

It’s a great deal… crappy David Ortiz for awesome David Ortiz!

Man, that Theo is good!

Other links of note today:

* Smoltz is last of dying breed (Washington Times)

* Wake-up call for Rondo (The Eagle-Tribune)

* The Celtics should draft UMass’ Tony Gaffney at No. 58 (The Republican)

I’ve heard alot of people talking about Jacoby Ellsbury and where he should be hitting.  When you look at Jacoby, we all think that he is the "perfect" leadoff guy.  His speed can alter the outcome of the game, I’ll give you that, but is that all it takes?  As far as I’m concerned that is secondary.  It’s a nice luxury to have, but really the main ingredient is that he gets on base for the hitters behind him.  When you look at a prototypical leadoff guy, you have to look at how the #2 hole hitter in the game has evolved.  In years past, a number two hitter was one that doesn’t strike out much, controls the bat, likes to look at pitches and not afraid to move the runner with a ground ball to second.   When playing Philadelphia, we saw Chase Utley hit 2nd.  In Toronto, its Aaron Hill.  In New York, Johnny Damon.  I mean Russell Branyan hit 2nd for Seattle last night.  But, more importantly, right here in Boston, w e have Dustin Pedroia, the reigning AL MVP.  Ask yourself, do you really want Pedroia taking pitches to allow Jacoby to steal 2nd?  Better yet, when he is on second and no outs, do you want Pedey to hit a lazy ground ball to second just to move the runner?  I know I don’t.  I want Dustin to drive the runner in.  I want him to be aggressive from the first pitch on.

Is Big Papi back? 

Take a look at the numbers and you’ll probably say yes. You’ll want to say yes. You’ll absolutely love saying yes.

After all, Ortiz is hitting .308 in June, with five homers and 12 RBI. If he can crank out one more dong before the end of the month, it will be his second highest monthly home run total since the start of ‘08.

Sure, that might not be cause for a Rolling Rally, but it’s certainly something to get excited about, right? Isn’t it at the very least a glimmer of hope in what we thought was a more than lost cause?

I mean, a month ago this guy was two 0-fers away from an all expenses paid trip to the glue factory; we were ready to leave him for dead. And in three short weeks, he’s turned it all around. He’s returned from the afterlife like Curly in City Slickers 2 before we found out it was actually his identical twin, Duke (LMAO!).

So yeah, things are looking up for the Large Father, and I’m almost ready to proclaim his return official. I want to forget this Spring ever happened; to suppress the memories of April and May like I do the fact that I wore the same pair of lime green Skidz for two months straight in 5th grade.