Recent Red Sox call-up Jed Lowrie continued his torrid start at the plate with a two-out double in the third inning last night.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

BOSTON — It wasn’t only David Ortiz who breathed a sigh of relief when the Sox’ designated hitter broke out of his season-long slump and crushed a grand slam just over the Green Monster in left-center in the third inning last night.

It wasn’t only Ortiz who felt great as he rounded the bases, finally able to deliver a big hit.

The Boston Red Sox team, manager and coaches included, exhaled with relief as the ball disappeared over the wall.

The Red Sox finally saw the reawakening of Big Papi. They saw the smile return to his face. They saw him relax, and they felt great because, aside from the fact Ortiz’s blast gave Boston a 4-1 lead, it also had to restore some confidence to a man who deeply feels he is letting the team and the city down when he doesn’t do his job.

That sense of team-wide relief spread like wildfire up and down the batting order, leading to a five-run splurge in the fourth inning that put the game out of reach.

The game of baseball, of course, can be very fickle. This is not to suggest that Ortiz won’t face any more adversity the rest of the season.

But sometimes, all it takes is one swing, one big moment, to pull a guy out of a slump and lead to confident relaxed at-bats, which lead to productive results.

Last night’s grand slam could easily do just that for a quality power hitter such as David Ortiz, who showed he may indeed be coming out of his funk by drilling a lineout to left in the sixth, not to mention his ringing RBI single to right-center in the eighth.

“That was pretty awesome,” said Sean Casey of Ortiz’s slam. “That was a great moment for everybody.”

Heads-up baserunning

The run didn’t matter. The Sox already were very comfortably ahead.

But the heads-up baserunning by Jacoby Ellsbury in the ninth inning was a great play.

Ellsbury was running from first base when Ortiz smoked a base hit to right-center. The hit easily moved the speedy Ellsbury to third.

He wasn’t content to ease into third, though. He rounded the bag by a step or two, looked up and saw the ball elude cutoff man Jason Botts at the mound. The ball moved only a few feet from Botts, but Ellsbury took off. Ellsbury slid home safely just ahead of the throw from Botts to catcher Gerald Laird.

“It was instincts, pretty much,” said Ellsbury of his mad dash, which accounted for the final run in Boston’s 11-3 win.

“I saw the throw was low so I anticipated (it might get away from Botts). I just read it, saw the ball roll away and I went home,” said Ellsbury.

Lowrie’s double sparks rally

Texas rookie starter Luis Mendoza retired the first eight batters he faced on 33 pitches.

But after Jed Lowrie blooped a two-out double just fair down the left-field line in the third inning, Mendoza’s command disappeared.

The double forced Mendoza to pitch out of the stretch for the first time in the game, a circumstance that threw off his rhythm. Of his next nine pitches, eight were out of the strike zone, resulting in a pair of walks and a bases-loaded situation for Ortiz.

Pitching coach Mark Connor made a visit, and after he left, Mendoza made sure he didn’t miss the strike zone with his first pitch to the Sox’ designated hitter. He served up a fat 91-mph fastball. Ortiz stayed back, took a good swing and launched it to left-center, the ball barely clearing the Green Monster for a grand slam.

It took Mendoza 33 pitches to get eight outs, and 23 more to get the ninth out. He never did regain his rhythm. After Lowrie’s double took him from the wind-up to the stretch, Mendoza threw 34 pitches, only 14 for strikes.

He faced eight batters after the double, and retired only one of them, rattled for four hits and three walks before getting yanked in the fourth. Mendoza was charged with seven earned runs in three-plus innings.

skrasner@projo.com