Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez showed off his opposite-field stroke in his first game of the spring on Saturday. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Adrian Gonzalez Show is now underway.

The first baseman made an impressive Red Sox debut on Saturday, jumping into his first game with his new club by lining a first-pitch fastball to left against Marlins ace (and 2010 NL ERA champion) Josh Johnson of the Marlins. He then lined a sac fly to center in his second at-bat. He saw only fastballs, but it was a meaningful step forward for the 28-year-old. Now, Gonzalez is looking to build on that effort.

–Gonzalez likes to play. A lot. The first baseman wants to play 162 games in the coming year, something that he accomplished in 2008. He is the major league leader in games played over the last four years, so it is not merely bluster when Gonzalez says that he wants to play everyday.

–John Lackey expects that the addition of Gonzalez to the Sox lineup will make life easy on the Boston rotation.

–Gonzalez will be in the lineup when the Yankees come to Fort Myers to play the Red Sox on Monday night. Though New York first baseman Mark Teixeira is not expected to make the trip, the comparisons between the two players will be prevalent for years to come. Of course, that only makes it more interesting that the two were once teammates. Both were with the Rangers in 2004 and 2005. Texas was puzzled about how to get both outstanding first basemen into its lineup, until Gonzalez — then 23 — took the initiative and suggested how the Rangers might be able to fit both players into regular roles.

–The Rangers, however, did not heed Gonzalez’ advice, and ended up trading him to the Padres. They weren’t the first team to deal Gonzalez away. The Marlins — who drafted the first baseman with the first overall pick in the 2001 draft — also parted with Gonzalez in a player swap, though Florida enjoyed considerably better results than did the Rangers. Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — How much did it mean to Dustin Richardson to be a member of the Red Sox organization? After the team selected him in the fifth round of the 2006 draft, he had his last name tattooed on his upper back, using the same font that the Red Sox feature on the front of their jerseys.

So, regret would have been a natural instinct after the Sox traded him during the winter to the Marlins for left-hander Andrew Miller. Richardson’s thoughts on the ink?

“Hell’s Angels format. … We’ll go with that. Hell’s Angels format,” he mused. “I forget it’s there.”

Richardson struck out 10.0 batters per nine innings in the minors for the Sox, but who struggled with his command (8.3 walks per nine innings) in 29 big league appearances. At the end of the season, he was slated to pitch in the Dominican, but backed out, deciding that he needed time to rest, relax and regain his bearings at the end of a long season.

He fully anticipated coming back and proving himself anew to the Sox. The news of the trade came as a shock.

The trade occurred while he was in the air, flying to the wedding of pitcher Michael Bowden. When he landed, he had a voicemail from GM Theo Epstein asked him to call. He reached farm director Mike Hazen, and was told of the deal on a conference call with Sox officials, who wished him well.

“At first,” said Richardson, “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to go. After a week or two that went by, especially when I got here, I realized the opportunity that I had here.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere. I liked where I was,” he added. “Little did I know what kind of opportunity I would have here, of course.”

Thus far this spring, the 27-year-old is making a positive impression on his new club. He has been more aggressive in attacking the strike zone, allowing one run in 4 2/3 innings (1.93 ERA) while striking out five and walking two.

“One thing that I heard about him when he came over was he’s inconsistent throwing strikes,” said Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez. “But he’s been doing a good job throwing strikes, coming in. So far he’s been doing a good job.”

Richardson suggests that he has found a comfort zone more easily in the Marlins’ big league clubhouse than he did in Boston. It is a younger club, with fewer established superstars, and typically, Florida offers more opportunities to its young pitchers. That being the case, he is hopeful that he can do with his new team what he could not with his old — solidify a place for himself at the big league level.

“It’s a clubhouse full of veterans [in Boston]. There’s a lot more pressure to do well, especially with the fans, and just in Boston, the pressure to win in general. I think I put too much pressure on myself,” said Richardson. “Here, that’s not so much the case.”

That said, he values his time with the Sox, which he hopes put him in position to take advantage of his new opportunity.

“Being with the Red Sox, I learned a lot of the way you go about the game, respect for the game,” he said. “[Now] I’m really excited to be here.”

Andrew Miller is re-joining his former UNC teammate Daniel Bard with the Red Sox. (AP)

Red Sox reliever Daniel Bard got the text message from Andrew Miller — his former teammate at the University of North Carolina — just minutes after the trade that sent the left-handed Miller from the Marlins to the Red Sox on Friday night.

“I was obviously pretty excited about it,” Bard said from his home in Mississippi.

“I think he had been told at least a few days [earlier] that the Red Sox were pretty interested in him and had been asking around trying to get background information,” Bard said. “He didn’t think it was going to go through that fast, from what I understood. But he definitely sounded excited.”

Bard and Miller, who was dealt to the Sox from the Marlins for lefty reliever Dustin Richardson, both were first-round draft picks in the 2006 MLB June amateur draft. Miller went to the Detroit Tigers with the sixth overall selection, while Bard fell to the Red Sox at No. 28. Miller would be traded from Detroit to Florida on Dec. 4, 2007, serving as the centerpiece for a deal that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers. Other members of the Detroit organization going to the Marlins in the trade were Dallas Trahern, Burke Badenhop, Eulogio de la Cruz, Mike Rabelo and Cameron Maybin.

Miller pitched in just nine major league games with the Marlins in 2010, going 1-5 with an 8.54 ERA, making seven starts. The 6-foot-7 lefty made his major league debut the year he was drafted, making eight relief appearances for the Tigers. In ’07 he joined the Detroit starting rotation for 13 games, going 5-5 with a 5.63 ERA. He appeared in a career-high 29 big league games in ’08 with the Marlins (making 20 starts), totaling a 6-10 mark with a 5.87 ERA.

Bard, who said he has talked to Miller “about once a month” during the season (and still competes with his former collegiate teammate in a fantasy football league), believes the change of organizations will benefit the former Tar Heels ace.

“The Marlins seem to have a kind of hands-on approach in terms of adjusting guys’ deliveries. I think it works for some guys, and some guys don’t respond to it very well,” said Bard, who last saw Miller pitch when watching a Marlins’ game on TV in August. “Some guys you’ve got to ride with what got him there, whether it’s fundamentally sound or not. It’s obvious that something has worked for him their whole life. I think they just changed a lot of things and it kind of took away from the pitcher he was when he was drafted. I think it will be good, change of scenery, good organization. I think it will be a positive thing for him.

“He’s quite a bit different than his 2006, college version. It seems like it had changed gradually ever since then. Mine looks a lot different, too, so I’m not saying change is a bad thing. But it does look different. I don’t know if it’s a work in progress. I don’t talk to him too much about that stuff. Baseball is usually the last thing we talk about when we’re together.”

Bard, who was in the starting rotation with Miller during the duo’s stint at UNC, sees the move by the Red Sox as one that could pay big dividends considering the kind of successes the former National Collegiate Player of the Year experienced before hitting the major leagues.

“The stuff was too good. The projectability with his body was there. To me, it still is,” said Bard, who plans on seeing Miller in December when the two will attend a mutual friend’s wedding. “All the tools are still there. Nothing has changed. I’m sure he had some stumbles along the way he would like to get rid of, but he’s still only 25-years-old and on the cusp of being a really good major league pitcher.”

For more Red Sox news, go to the team page at weei.com/redsox.

Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka matched a career-worst by allowing eight runs on Tuesday. (AP)

Daisuke Matsuzaka continued his yearlong struggles with the big inning. But this may have been the most undignified of them all.

For the sixth time in 2010 (second most by a Red Sox pitcher to Tim Wakefield‘s seven), Matsuzaka gave up four or more runs in an inning. The outbreak came in the top of the fourth, with the 6-7-8 hitters due up for the Rays.

The right-hander walked the first two batters he faced and then, on a sacrifice bunt attempt, he fired too late to third base, thus loading the bases. That set in motion a four-run merry-go-round that featured a bases loaded walk (the sixth issued by Sox pitchers in three games), a one-run single and a two-run double. Four runs on just two hits: This was misery, undeniable.

It got worse for Matsuzaka, who finished his night matching a career-worst by permitting eight earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. That horror show of a start sent the Sox spiraling to a 14-5 defeat, thus effectively ending any illusions of making a run at the wild card-leading Rays in the standings.

The Sox are once again 7 1/2 games back in the standings, with 23 games left on the schedule but just one left against Tampa Bay. The wholesale changes made by the Sox (who finished the game with different players at every position from the ones who started) in the late innings were a likely harbinger of the team’s reconfigured priorities down the stretch.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

–The Red Sox had entered Tuesday having gone six straight games without permitting a homer, the longest such streak by the club since June 4-10, 2008. The pitching staff made up for lost time, permitting five homers to the Rays.

–Matsuzaka was terrible. He extended his career-worst streak of consecutive starts allowing at least four earned runs to five games. He also walked four or more batters for the seventh time this season.

–With Matsuzaka out of the game, it didn’t get any better for the Red Sox. Dustin Richardson faced three batters and allowed all to reach, permitting two walks and an infield single (on which he also committed a run-scoring throwing error). In walking the first two batters he faced, the left-hander extended his streak of consecutive batters walked to four, a run stretching over three games.

Robert Manuel then entered and gave up a three-run homer to Evan Longoria, the first of three homers that he permitted in his outing. Manuel became the fifth major league reliever (and second Red Sox, following Tim Wakefield on May 1) to permit three homers in a relief outing this year.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

–Victor Martinez continued his hellacious year against left-handers. He went 2-for-2 with a single and two-run double against Rays starter David Price, improving his season average to .408 with a 1.200 OPS against lefty pitchers.

–Michael Bowden helped bring the game to a merciful conclusion. With the Sox down, 14-2, he entered in the top of the seventh and tossed a pair of shutout innings, needing just 24 pitches to do so.

–Darnell McDonald hit a homer, walked twice and stole a base. He has nine homers and nine steals (in nine tries) this year.

–After entering in the top of the sixth inning, Yamaico Navarro took his first major league walk in the bottom of the inning. After entering the contest with a higher average (.111) than OBP (.105), he managed to push his OBP up to .136. Lars Anderson likewise reached base for the first time in his big league career by drawing a walk in the eighth inning.

Josh Beckett

BALTIMORE — Speaking prior to the Red Sox’ game with the Orioles at Camden Yards Wednesday night, Josh Beckett said that his season contributed to where the Sox find themselves in the standings.

“Absolutely,” the pitcher said of whether he felt his season had played a role in the team’s place in the standings. “All that time I missed, that hurt us. Like I said, if you went up to everybody, they’d all say the same thing.

“If you went up to all, well, 75 guys that played on our team this year, I think everyone would do that. It’s a shame, because there’s some guys that have come in and really done an unbelievable job to put us in the situation that we were in and are still in this late in the season.”

Beckett also explained why he didn’t speak to the media following the Red Sox’ 5-2 loss to Baltimore Tuesday night, marking the first time in his Sox’ career that he hasn’t answered questions following a start.

“I just had stuff to do, stuff to take care of. I couldn’t put into words how I felt,” Beckett said, admitting that both individually and from a team standpoint it has been a “pretty frustrating” year. “I just had some things I needed to do.”

Beckett said he felt like he made “progress” with his seven-inning outing Tuesday night, in which he allowed three runs (2 earned), and seven hits while striking out five and walking one. He did, however, say the situation with the team’s playoff hopes and his up and down performances are “pretty frustrating.” Beckett did note that he felt like he had good stuff in his previous start against Seattle. “Results are still a process,” he said. “The process better get right.”

Asked about the Red Sox’ current position in the American League playoff race — which has the Sox eight games in back of the Yankees and seven behind Tampa Bay — Beckett said, “It’s definitely different right now … I don’t think we’ve completely folded up the tent.”

OTHER PREGAME NOTES

–Felix Doubront underwent an MRI and CT scan that revealed what manager Terry Francona called a “mild strain in his upper pectoral muscle,” near the clavicle on the right side of his upper chest. Doubront will stay in Boston during the final two games of the Orioles series, since he was not going to pitch in them. The Sox believe that he will be available in the coming days.

–The Sox have been in regular dialogue with Marco Scutaro about the condition of his shoulder in making determinations about whether he is available to play. The shortstop has, according to the manager, backed off a lot of his pregame routine in order to conserve his shoulder.

While his injured rotator cuff primarily affects his throwing, Francona acknowledged that it could be affecting him at the plate as well. That said, Scutaro is more comfortable at the plate now than he was in the first half, when he required cortisone injections.

Even so, the manager could not say whether the condition was one that will have to be addressed through surgery in the offseason.

“Anything that aggravates you, I’m sure doesn’t help. But he’s been playing every day,” said Francona. “I don’t know [if he will require surgery]. I don’t know that anybody knows yet. When you get into that area — and I went through it myself — you just fully plan on having a nice surgery and feeling good. Then, you see the doctor and you realize that, when you get in that area, sometimes you can do more harm. It’s not just cut and dried. I’m sure we’re going to look into whatever’s in his best interest.”

–Dustin Richardson was called up from Triple-A Pawtucket to serve as the second left-handed pitcher in the bullpen while Doubront is on the shelf. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and outfielder Eric Patterson were also activated for Wednesday’s game after concluding their rehab assignments in Pawtucket.

–The Sox are looking forward to seeing Saltalamacchia work behind the plate, but he has also been taking grounders at first base.

–Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was scratched from his scheduled start last Friday, has followed his normal between-starts routine in recent days, and he appears on track for his start on Thursday against the Orioles.

–Jason Varitek and Dustin Pedroia were scheduled to be examined by Dr. George Theodore, a Red Sox orthopedist, close to game time on Wednesday.

–Francona had little to report on Carlos Delgado, who has been sidelined since Aug. 15.

For more Red Sox coverage see the team page at weei.com/redsox.

The Red Sox announced that right-hander Ramon Ramirez has been traded to the Giants. In exchange, the Sox will receive minor-league reliever Daniel Turpen.

The Sox had talked with the Mets over recent weeks about trading the right-hander to New York, but a major league source said that the two sides had not matched up. The Mets were interested in Ramirez, whom they viewed as a good buy-low candidate, and the two sides had discussed a swap of the Sox reliever for Rod Barajas before the catcher went on the disabled list. The two sides also discussed Ramirez for a prospect, but could not match up.

Ramirez was 0-3 with a 4.46 ERA in 44 appearances for the Red Sox this year, though he had been better of late. He had a 2.86 ERA since June 5, a period during which opponents are hitting .216 with a .622 OPS against him. He has struck out 17 and walked seven in 22 innings during the run.

In 2009, he was 7-4 with a 2.84 mark in his first season in Boston. The 28-year-old was originally acquired from the Royals after the 2008 season in exchange for outfielder Coco Crisp.

Turpen has been pitching for Richmond in the Double-A Eastern League, where he had a 4.09 ERA, 42 strikeouts and 19 walks in 50 2/3 innings. In four minor league seasons since being taken in the eighth round of the 2007 draft, he has a 2.69 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 220 2/3 innings.

“There’s a chance given service time and some other things that there might be some turnover in the pen and he’s someone who can be part of the solution looking ahead. Maybe not this year, but looking at our future bullpen,” said Sox GM Theo Epstein. “He’s a performer that comes from a difficult arm angle, keeps the ball on the ground and throws strikes. We like his demeanor and the three-pitch mix.”

With Ramirez gone, the Sox recalled left-hander Dustin Richardson from Triple-A Pawtucket. Richardson has a 2.57 ERA in 13 big league appearances (spanning just seven innings) this year. He was 3-0 with a 3.19 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings for Triple-A Pawtucket this year.

In order to make a roster spot for 22-year-old southpaw Felix Doubront, the Red Sox designated pitcher Boof Bonser for assignment on Friday. The team now has 10 days to trade or release Bonser, who was acquired in the offseason from the Twins but has spent considerable time on the disabled list. The 28-year-old made just two appearances for the Sox, allowing four earned runs in two innings.

Manager Terry Francona said Bonser was the odd man out because they wanted a second left-handed reliever behind Hideki Okajima. That meant keeping Dustin Richardson, who has allowed a hit but hasn’t been charged with a run in 2/3 of an inning.

“We really like having a second lefty. Part of keeping Oki productive with one lefty that’s a pretty good lefty, you can overuse him. We don’t want to overuse guys,” said Francona. “Richardson has done a really good job in Triple-A. We’d kind of like to watch him pitch a little bit.”

Francona suggested that the team decided to keep Scott Atchison over Bonser because the former is in a position where he can pitch fairly regularly. Bonser, who is 16 months removed from shoulder surgery, required greater restrictions on his workload. That said, based on the velocity that Bonser has shown (he hit 95 mph in a minor league relief outing), Francona suggested that the right-hander is “pretty healthy” and that he would likely resurface again soon.

“Boof’s going to pitch in the big leagues,” said Francona. “I believe that.”