Ortiz was given the night off Friday because the Red Sox were facing a tough left-hander in Scott Kazmir. This was third night off in the last nine games for Ortiz, who is experiencing the worst season of his Boston career.

Ortiz, who was given a couple of days off to work on his swing, went 2-for-4 in his return to the lineup in Saturday night's loss to the Rangers. Ortiz's two hits were the lone encouraging element for Boston on a night when the team committed three errors, failed to score a run and were shut down by a rookie pitcher making his first major-league start.

Ortiz (rest) is back in the lineup Saturday against the Rangers, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald reports. Manager John Farrell felt Ortiz needed to take a step back and work out some issues with his approach at the plate, so he sat him for the first two games of the series. Apparently, the skipper has seen sufficient improvement from Ortiz, who is just 1-for-20 in his last five games, as he will return to the three-hole in the order to face Alex "Chi Chi" Gonzalez.

Manager John Farrell said that Ortiz will likely return to the lineup Saturday against the Rangers, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald reports. Manager John Farrell benched the struggling Ortiz for the first two games of the series in order to give him some time to refine his approach at the plate. After Ortiz checked out some of his own video during batting practice Friday, Farrell seemed satisfied enough to give Ortiz another shake in the lineup Saturday, though it's uncertain if he'll occupy his familiar spot in the heart of the Boston lineup. Ortiz certainly isn't foreign to early-season slumps, but with the slugger set to turn 40 in November, it's not unreasonable to wonder if his days as the league's preeminent designated hitter are over.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said Thursday that Ortiz will be out of the lineup for a few days to work some things out, WEEI reports. According to Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ortiz is out of the lineup for Thursday's game against the Rangers, and it sounds as if the veteran slugger will likely miss another game or two. While his strikeout and walk rates are nearly identical to last season's, there's a mounting pile of evidence that Ortiz isn't making as good of contact. Given his lack of speed and the consistent shifts he sees, Ortiz needs to crush the ball to approach even a league-average BABIP. There's likely some poor luck involved in his current .227 BABIP, but according to FanGraphs, his hard-hit percentage (32.1) is way down from last season (45.0), and he's hitting more pop-ups than ever before. Of course, the sample size still isn't all that big, and Ortiz has overcome early-season slumps multiple times in recent years. He'll still have every chance to work his way out of the slump after taking a few days off.

Ortiz, batting fifth in the order for the first time this season, went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored in Tuesday night's loss to the Twins. Ortiz is having a slump similar to the epic one he had in 2009. His slash after Tuesday's game is .222/.309/.386/.695. Against left-handers, it's uglier. He has just six hits in 57 at-bats (.105) against south-paws. According to Fangraphs, one problem is that Ortiz is making contact with pitches in the strike zone at his lowest rate since 2010. Thus, his percentage of swinging strikes has increased.

Ortiz was moved down to fifth in Boston's lineup Tuesday, the Boston Globe's Pete Abraham reports. The last time Ortiz hit as low as fifth in the order was in 2012 when Bobby Valentine was the manager. Pablo Sandoval will hit third and Hanley Ramirez will hit cleanup Tuesday. Ortiz, who is hitting just .221 with six homers could remain outside of the top four spots in the order until his bat gets hot.

Ortiz was intentionally walked twice in Wednesday night's loss to the Rangers. He finished the game 0-for-2 with three walks and a strikeout. Ortiz may be hitting less than his career average, but he's still considered dangerous and has been given intentional free passes three times in the last two games. Ant at this point of the season, teams just aren't afraid of his protection, Hanley Ramirez, who's hitting .161 with runners in scoring position and hasn't knocked in a run in 57 at-bats.

Ortiz went 2-for-4 with a homer, a walk and two RBI in Tuesday night's win over the Rangers. Ortiz is one of several members of the lineup under-performing at the plate, but he's put together of string of three consecutive multi-hit games with homers in two straight.

Ortiz is out of the lineup Sunday against the Mariners, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald reports. Manager John Farrell just wanted to give Ortiz a two-day break, as the Red Sox will have a scheduled off day Monday. Hanley Ramirez will assume DH duties in place of Ortiz, who is batting .236 with five homers and 14 RBI on the season.