He reaches into his locker. Puts on his black Ed Hardy shirt and blue jeans. Fiddles with his iPod headset. And for the first time, looks around the Red Sox visiting clubhouse at the Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park.

He sees a gaggle of reporters around teammate Jason Bay, the left fielder. This is Ortiz's opening. He hurriedly shuffles past the crowd. Several reporters suddenly start to follow. If Ortiz notices, he feigns ignorance.

Ortiz turns the corner and is out of sight. He retreats to the team hotel and heads to his room. He says he tried to sleep, but he couldn't. He shows up early the next day and sits slumped at his locker.

"My body is resting every night," he says, "but my mind is spinning with all of this (stuff). It's hard to sleep. This is hard. I've never been through something like this. But when you get older, and have a bad year, you never know what can happen. A lot of times, they don't let you come back."

Ortiz, despite his best five-game stretch of the season, is hitting .197 with only two homers and 22 RBI as the Red Sox designated hitter. This from a player who averaged 39 homers and 122 RBI in six years with the Red Sox.

Yet, in his own words after Ortiz stranded 12 baserunners against the Los Angeles Angels three weeks ago: "Just put down, 'Papi stinks.' "

When Ortiz is not beating himself up, the news media is doing it for him. A column last week in the Boston Herald suggested it was time to release Ortiz. Another story, in TheBoston Globe, examined his psyche, wondering whether it's all in his head.

"People keep writing and saying all this (stuff)," says Ortiz, 33, who plans to have his eyes checked today for dryness. "They say I can't hit no more. That I'm done. What, I have one arm now? I'm not 45. I never struggled like this, but I'll be back. Then what are they going to say?"

The only solace, Ortiz says, is that the Red Sox (33-24) continue to win without his contributions.

And, of course, they have Bay.

He's helping to keep Ortiz sane. He has 16 home runs and a league-leading 55 RBI to go along with a .400 on-base percentage and .599 slugging percentage.

"I think I would have choked myself by now," Ortiz says, "if we didn't have him.

"If he's not doing what he's doing right now, we'd be losing more games. And when we lose, you know where the blame goes. It goes on me. But this guy, he's got no fear. He might be the biggest reason I haven't fallen apart."

'Welcome to Red Sox Nation'

Bay, 30, who grew up a continent away in Trail, British Columbia, never met Ortiz until he showed up on the Red Sox doorstep, Aug. 1, 2008, a day after the trade that shook Boston.

Bay may have had a name, and impressive credentials with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he was known in Boston simply as the man coming in to replace Manny Ramirez. He was the centerpiece of a three-team trade that sent four players to Pittsburgh and Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, ending Ramirez's incredibly productive, yet controversial run in Boston.

"No matter what I did when I got over here," says Bay, the 2004 NL Rookie of the Year who has hit at least 20 homers every year, "I was the new guy. I was the guy who got traded for Manny Ramirez. That was the story. I understood it. But it's not like I ever said, "Hey, trade for me. I'm going to be Manny Ramirez.' I just got traded."

Bay knew life was going to be different when he walked through Boston's Logan International Airport and heard an announcement over the public-address system: "Jason Bay, your bags from Pittsburgh are coming in on Carousel 13. Welcome to Red Sox Nation." He tripled his first game, made a diving catch, and has become an icon.

"All we kept hearing about for so long was Manny, Manny, Manny," Ortiz says. "You know what, now we've got another hitter the caliber of Manny."

Says injured Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie: "He replaced a guy who was an unbelievable talent, but at times, you just didn't know what you were going to get from day to day. And we know exactly what we're going to get from Jason everyday."

Bay doesn't appear to be fazed by the pressure of being in his free agent year. He and the Red Sox talked about a contract extension in spring training, but when they couldn't reach an agreement, decided to table discussions until later in the season.

The baseball landscape is littered with players who couldn't handle the big-time pressure. Bay might be interviewed more in a week in Boston than he was during his entire stay in Pittsburgh.

This intensity, he says, has enabled him to thrive. "It might be a little overwhelming at first, but once I got into it, I love it."

'We need him to hit'

Ortiz, who has flourished in the limelight of Boston, is now discovering the dark side of a big market. He has a bad game, and he's asked whether his career is over. He produces a couple of hits, and it's not enough, because he hasn't homered.

"Negativity doesn't help me," Ortiz says. "I've never struggled like this. But what am I going to do? The one thing I know how to do is hit.

"What I do know is that I'm not done. Trust me. I am not finished."

Bay, who has replaced Ortiz in the middle of the lineup, feels his pain. Bay had an off year in 2007, hitting just .247 with 21 homers and 84 RBI, but playing in Pittsburgh, it's as if nobody noticed.

"You see how it's wearing on him," Bay says. "Everyone notices him because he's a premium player in a premium market. He'll get through this. I tell him I'm just keeping his spot (in the lineup) warm until he gets back."

Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who dropped Ortiz to sixth in the lineup two weeks ago — the first time out of the No. 3 hole for Ortiz since 2005 — says he doesn't plan to bench him, trade him or release him. They have no choice but to keep playing him.

Ortiz is due about $20.8 million for the remainder of this season and 2010.

"What are you doing to do?" Francona says. "There's more to lose by sitting him. We've got to be patient. I don't know a better alternative. We need him to hit.

"Everyone knows he's feeling it, but by moving David down in the order, maybe has taken off a little of the glare. It's been a bad two months. Hopefully, the next two will be a great two months. I wish I had the answer."

Ortiz's mailbox is stuffed each day with suggestions. Even games he gets a single hit, his cellphone is filled with messages from friends around the country.

"If I ever get four hits in a game," Ortiz says, "I'm going to have to get a new phone because mine will blow up."

Says Tigers right fielder Magglio Ordonez: "Everybody has bad years. And he's going through a bad year. He's going to come back. You'll see."

Ortiz shrugs the massive shoulders on his 260-pound frame, and smiles.

"I'm the same guy I've always been," Ortiz says. "I'm the same guy now as when I was hitting 50 home runs. I don't change. I never talked (stuff).

"If my (4-year-old) kid decides to play baseball, I want people to say, 'His last name is Ortiz. I remember his dad. He was a good player.

" 'But you know what, he was even a better person.' What could be better than that?"

Bob Nightengale reported from Detroit

Enlarge By Darren Calabrese, AP via The Canadian Press Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, batting .197, says Jason Bay is a key reason 'I haven't fallen apart.'