ARLINGTON, Texas -- Big Papi is back in the Boston lineup, and the Red Sox are back in first place.

David Ortiz had an RBI single on the first pitch he saw in 10 days and scored twice in his return as the Red Sox had another convincing victory over the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, 13-2 on Wednesday night.

"I felt normal. Everything was good," Ortiz said. "Early in the season we didn't do well against nobody. But we've got a good team that knows how to compete."

Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez hit two-run homers in consecutive innings for Boston (79-50), which moved one game ahead of New York after the Yankees lost 6-4 in 10 innings to Oakland.

With 33 games left, the Red Sox aren't yet too concerned with the standings.

"I think there's more significance to what food's being served in there tonight," manager Terry Francona said, motioning toward the clubhouse.

Just like they did in their 11-5 victory a night earlier, the Red Sox jumped to a quick 6-0 lead.

The first of Dustin Pedroia's two RBI singles off Matt Harrison (10-9) put Boston ahead to stay in the first. Ortiz immediately followed with his run-scoring hit and then scored from first base on Crawford's two-run double into the right-field corner even though the relay throw beat him to the plate.

It appeared that Mike Napoli had the one-hop relay in his mitt, but the ball came out when the catcher swiped to tag Ortiz and the Red Sox led 4-0.

Ortiz had missed nine games because of bursitis in his right heel. The injury certainly seemed to be healed the way he was moving around the bases.

After Ortiz had a leadoff double in the fifth, Jed Lowrie had a sacrifice bunt and Crawford a sacrifice fly. Ortiz lumbered home and clipped the back of Napoli's leg with his flop slide just ahead of the throw.

"That was a good test," said Francona, who had a big smile on his face when he greeted Ortiz on the top step of the dugout.

"He was moving today pretty good. Nothing wrong with his heel, he's been faking it," Texas manager Ron Washington said before chuckling.