There's a lot for Adrian Gonzalez to smile about after a 'great' report from Francona Wednesday.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Red Sox manager Terry Francona said Wednesday that Adrian Gonzalez is getting much closer to playing in a spring training game than was first expected. Meanwhile, John Lackey starts the first Red Sox spring training game of 2011 that doesn’t feature the Twins or a college team in the other dugout.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF

Dustin Pedroia 2B

Carl Crawford LF

David Ortiz DH

J.D. Drew RF

Jed Lowrie SS

Jason Varitek C

Lars Anderson 1B

Nate Spears 3B

John Lackey P

Meanwhile, Gonzalez took another 75 swings off a tee and soft toss on Wednesday and is much farther ahead of schedule to make his Red Sox game debut in spring training, according to Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

[Click here to listen to Francona update Gonzalez's progress toward a first spring training game.]

“Adrian did a total of 75 today,” Francona said before the Red Sox game against the Braves at City of Palms. “He did a bunch. He’ll have a re-gen day [Thursday] and then he’ll get back at it the next day. [He will] probably incorporate a little bit of cage BP, where it’ll be tee, soft toss and then some BP in the cage. I think he’s definitely ahead of the schedule. He’s doing great.”

Gonzalez, who has been steadily building strength in his surgically repaired right shoulder and the team has reported no issues with his progression. Francona stopped short of commiting to a timetable for his first Grapefruit League game.

“Again, it’s completely up to how he’s feeling but it’s so early in camp and we’ve played three games and his progression is way farther along then I think we thought it would be,” Francona said when asked if he could play in a game by late next week.

Other Wednesday nuggets:

- Francona announced that regulars Jason Varitek, Darnell McDonald, Jed Lowrie, Ryan Kalish and Daniel Nava will travel to Tampa for Friday night’s game against the Yankees, with Clay Buchholz making his second appearance of the spring, and first start.

- Francona will make the trip with the team up to Tampa but will not go to Sarasota for the game against the Orioles as he has a team community commitment on Saturday following the game with Florida at City of Palms.

- With Josh Beckett officially scratched for Thursday and continuing his rehab from Monday’s mild concussion, Stolmy Pimentel, who was originally scheduled for relief, will move up and take Beckett’s place against the Phillies.

[Click here to listen to Francona update Beckett's progress Wednesday morning.]

- There was a lot of love shown before the game between the two clubs. Jonathan Papelbon mugged Braves DH Eric Hinske with a bear hug. Francona was happy to see Tim Hudson starting the game as he called him “one of my buddies” from Francona’s days as scout and eventually bench coach of the 2003 A’s.

- Another AGon made trip for the Braves as former Red Sox shortstop Alex Gonzalez greeted fans behind home plate. 2B Dan Uggla, LF Martin Prado made the trip from Disney, as did Budding superstar RF Jason Heyward and fellow Sports Illustrated coverboy 1B Freddie Freeman.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Belated greetings from Bradenton, home of McKechnie Field and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The most newsworthy item of the day in the life and times of WEEI.com: Traffic in Florida can be bad, but “clever” detours can be worse.

A few pre-game notes from Bradenton while we, the ravenous media, await the end of Jon Lester‘s outing so that we can ask him about the report of his contract extension:

– Brad Penny will throw live batting practice on Thursday. He’ll probably pitch sometime next in a minor-league simulated game before the team decides when to use him in a Grapefruit League game. As for whether he will be ready to start the season on time, manager Terry Francona said it was uncertain. “We’ll have to see,” he said. “It’s probably going to somewhat depend on how this week goes.”

– Mike Lowell is still full-speed-ahead (such as his hip permits) for serving as the designated hitter on Tuesday. It will be his first game activity since Game 3 of the ALDS. Lowell will probably be limited to two at-bats.

– Rocco Baldelli will play outfield on Tuesday. Incidentally, Baldelli said on Sunday that his hamstring was fine, and that while there might have been a bit of rust at the plate after sitting out of games four four days, “that’s what I have to get used to” given that he will be serving as a bench player.

– Former Red Sox reliever Craig Hansen said he spent the offseason working with his college pitching coach in hopes of rediscovering the mechanics that made him dominant at St. John’s. It was the first time since college, Hansen said, that he had gone back to work the pitching coach with whom he enjoyed his greatest success. Hansen said he was throwing the mechanics he had learned with the Sox “out the window,” in hopes that this spring represents a “fresh start” on his playing career. A couple of interesting elements surrounding Hansen:

1) He’s now out of options, though if ever there was a team in the majors that had the roster space to permit a big arm to develop at the major league level, the Pirates are it.

2) The four-year, $4.4 million major-league contract that Hansen received from the Red Sox when he was drafted has now reached its conclusion. The Pirates gave the reliever a rather generous $825,000 contract, even though he has little more than a year of major-league service time. By way of contrast, Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen, who fell just short of the cutoff for salary arbitration eligibility with two years and 133 days of service time, will make $476,000. La vie n’est pas juste.

– Former Red Sox first baseman and outfielder Eric Hinske strained an intercostal muscle in his ribs — the same injury that afflicted Josh Beckett during the postseason last year — when he played the Red Sox in Fort Myers on Feb. 26, and hasn’t been in a game since. He’s hoping to return within the next week or so. He did note that if ever there was a spring training when it was OK to miss a couple of weeks, this endless one (prolonged by the WBC) is it.

– Nick Green just hit an absolute bomb to straightaway centerfield in the top of the third inning, his second in as many days. For those who have followed the infielder’s career, which has featured 10 homers in 703 big-league at-bats, the development is shocking. Green is now hitting .550 this spring (11-for-20).

It sounds like a 1970′s television show, doesn’t it? Not so fortunate, but I can give a blog entry.

Let’s start with the latter portion of our title first — the fish. The image you are seeing is that of David Ortiz holding up about a five-pound bass. Good stuff. But, unfortunately for Papi, it was not his fish to fry. The man who caught this fine fish is J.D. Drew, who was working the pond that just happened to be in back of Ortiz’s house. Upon seeing his teammate, Ortiz came out to check out the right fielder’s haul … and a picture (thanks to Drew’s camera) was born.

As for Hinske, he is here at City of Palms Park with the Pittsburgh Pirates today. Before we get to Hinske, here are the lineups:

Pittsburgh: Nyler Morgan (LF), Andrew McCutchen (CF), Andy LaRoche (3B), Hinske (RF), Brandon Moss (DH), Steve Pearce (1B), Jason Jaramillo (C), Brian Bixler (SS), Shelby Ford (2B), Ian Snell (P)

Boston: Julio Lugo (SS), Dustin Pedroia (2B), David Ortiz (DH), J.D. Drew (RF), Jason Varitek (C), Jeff Bailey (1B), Paul McAnulty (LF), Nick Green (3B), Chip Ambres (CF).

As for Hinske, this is what he had to say about the Red Sox’ offseason pursuit of his services before he signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Pittsburgh to play both corner outfield and infield positions:

“They contacted me right after (Mark) Teixeira signed with the Yankees and said they were going to make an offer in a couple of days. But right before they were supposed to make the offer they said that (Mark) Kotsay had taken the $1.5 million they were going to offer. So they never actually made me an offer but I thought they were going to.

“I was talking to quite a few teams so I wasn’t going to sign imminently with anyone. I was waiting for all the offers to come in. I heard from about eight teams but I only received offers from a couple and Pittsburgh was on me the hardest from the start. We felt like it was a good spot for me.

(Regarding whether the Red Sox were on the radar before the phone call) “I hadn’t heard from them and obviously they were going after Teixeira, but when they knew they weren’t going to get him and they didn’t know if Kotsay was going to come back and take that deal, and I had been there before. It didn’t end up happening but it was good to hear back from them.

“One thing I didn’t want to do is go back to a bench role. I know right now I’m a fourth outfielder, but I have an opportunity to get a lot of at-bats. I can’t say I would have signed with the Red Sox because Mike’s probably healthy and I’m right back in the same situation I was in ’07. It’s great to be with the Red Sox but I want to play.”

Hinske hit 20 home runs with a .247 batting average in 381 at-bats last year with the Rays, making $800,000 after originally inking a minor league deal.

Hideki Okajima is now likely to be a Red Sox for the long haul, since the team now holds his rights through the 2012 season. Based on what the left-handed reliever did this past offseason, there is no reason to expect him to stumble short of the proverbial finish line on his time in Boston.

Okajima, much to the surprise of team officials, ran the Honolulu Marathon over the winter. Just before his 33rd birthday in December, he handled the 26.2 miles in six hours and change. (For the record, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford once ran the Boston Marathon in 4:00:03. Oki-Doke indeed.) Though there were some private concerns in the organization about the pitcher subjecting himself to that endurance test, he insists that it was an entirely useful means of preparing for the season.

“Running is really, really good. All that matters is concentration. It helps to focus (while getting ready) for Opening Day. You have to beat up your body a little bit, especially the lower body,” Okajima said through translator Jeff Yamaguchi. “Otherwise, you’re going to run out of gas during the season.”

That being the case, would Okajima ever have designs on running the Boston Marathon, perhaps diverting the trip from Hopkinton to head up to Fenway Park for eighth inning duties before leaving the park en route to Copley Square?

“No chance,” he said in English, before clarifying the stance in Japanese. “There’s a cutoff (time) for the Boston Marathon. I can’t meet it … (But) I think the Boston Marathon is a little bit easier than Honolulu. There are a lot of uphills and downhills in the Honolulu Marathon—many hills. There’s no flat top.”

Though he does not have visions of the Boston Marathon, Okajima is pleased to stay here for a lengthy duration. The man who ranks 12th in the majors in relief ERA (min. 100 games) over the past two seasons looks forward to remaining in Major League Baseball beyond the 2009 season.

“Of course I want to stay here,” said Okajima. “I don’t care about the contract. I want to get the results, have good numbers this year, then see what happens.”

Not much else to mention on a quiet morning following yesterday’s day-night double-header. A few odds and ends from the morning:

–Justin Masterson is the lucky pitcher who gets the starting pitching assignment when the Red Sox roll across the state for a couple hours to play the Orioles in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. (Worth mentioning: there are murmurs that the Orioles might relocate to Fort Myers in the near future, which would certainly help the Red Sox and Twins to improve their currently grueling spring travel schedules.)

–Jon Lester will be emphasizing his changeup in exhibition contests, starting with today’s outing against the Pirates.

–Mike Lowell is now running at roughly 75-80 percent, and he’s taking batting practice without showing any signs of favoring his surgically repaired hip. The Sox are continuing their efforts to put the reins on John Smoltz, who is feeling good at this point in camp and clearly is chomping at the bit to increase his workload.

–Former Red Sox Eric Hinske is currently making the rounds, greeting his ex-teammates while wearing an unfamiliar Pirates uniform. It’s interesting to note that Hinske was one of the biggest free-agent bargains of the 2008 season, when he made just $800,000 from the Tampa Bay Rays, when he hit 20 homers with a .798 OPS.