1. Clay Buchholz is in a good place after throwing to major league hitters for the first time since last August. “Mentally, as far as this being the first time I pitched in a big league atmosphere,” he said. “It certainly is a better feeling than the last time I pitched in a big league atmosphere, last year. That 2 1/3 innings (Aug. 20 in Baltimore). I had a little adrenaline going. Overall I felt smooth.”

Every day we’re going to give you a key “Extra Innings” mechanical adjustment by one of the Red Sox. Today that comes from Buchholz. After being sent to Pawtucket to alter his arm slot — bringing it down to more of a three-quarters — Buchholz is now coming from his usual over-the-top spot.

“We changed it last year because me and a couple of others started panicking a little bit,” he said. “The organization wanted to give me as good a chance to get to the big leagues as possible. It feels more normal, I guess.”

It evidently has paid off according to one of the hitters who faced Buchholz in BP.

“Buchholz looked pretty good today,” said outfielder Brad Wilkerson. “He was consistent, hitting the strike zone. I don’t like ‘Iron-Mike’ guys like that who come over the top. He was pretty tough.”

2. The rotation is set. Of note in the announced pitching rotation for the first few games of spring is that Josh Bard will be charged with catching Tim Wakefield in the dimly-lit Hammond Stadium for the first time out. 

3. David Ortiz returned to batting practice, and showed no lingering impact from the mild shoulder soreness that kept him out of batting practice for the past two days. He put on a pretty healthy display of moonshots in batting practice, and showed typically ferocious form with his swing. Ortiz also cleared the air regarding his relationship with a controversial trainer.

4. Mike Lowell seems ahead of schedule. Lowell did some light jogging in the outfield after taking batting practice for a fourth straight day. The third baseman will get Sunday off from baseball activities.

5 Julio Lugo’s one-on-one meeting with Terry Francona (who does such get-togethers with all the players) allowed both the player and the team to get some things off their chest, putting the shortstop in a seemingly good frame of mind heading into the spring games.