The outfielder still hasn’t played in a spring training game.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Trot Nixon expects to play the opening game of the regular season despite missing all six of Boston’s exhibition games through Tuesday night with lower back pain.

The Red Sox rightfielder received an epidural injection on Monday to relieve the pain in his left side and said it seemed to improve. He doesn’t know when he’ll return to action but said he probably could play if it were the regular season.

“We still have quite a bit of time here,” said Nixon, who hopes the medicine and rest will relieve the pain caused by a slight protrusion of a disc that is causing it to press on a nerve.

He hasn’t swung a bat or practiced in the field in about a week, and manager Terry Francona is being cautious.

“The doctors said everything went perfect” with the injection, Francona said before Tuesday night’s game against Cincinnati. “The expectation is that he will fully respond to it.”

Nixon signed a three-year, $19.5 million contract in the offseason rather than become a free agent after the season.

He is coming off the best of his five full seasons with Boston, hitting .306 with 28 homers and 87 RBIs. His career-best .578 slugging percentage ranked fifth in the AL.

Nixon hopes that rest and the medicine in the injection will allow the disc to move back into its proper place.

“We’re talking a very small distance,” he said.

Meanwhile, he’s frustrated after preparing all offseason for training camp, going through drills before the games began and then being sidelined. There was no single incident that caused the pain, he said.

“I was out there swinging and throwing and hitting and one day I felt tension, a knot forming a little bit more than I really cared to,” he said.

“It’s frustrating because when you’re dealing with your back or any injury, you’ve got to have patience and sometimes patience isn’t really a good virtue of mine.”

Nixon can get in some work even if he’s not in exhibition games by working at the team’s minor-league complex.

“I think he’s going to be fine,” Francona said. “As long as he’s healthy, we can get him ready” for the opening game April 4 at Baltimore.

Notes:Boston 2B Pokey Reese was a late scratch from Tuesday night’s game. His jaw was bruised on the left side when he was accidentally hit by teammate David McCarty during stretching exercises before Monday’s game against Philadelphia in Clearwater. X-rays were negative. … Former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax visited the Red Sox clubhouse before the game. He chatted with Francona and pitching coach Dave Wallace, who spent nearly two decades in the Dodgers organization before coming to Boston last year. … Boston closer Keith Foulke is expected to make his spring training debut Thursday against Baltimore or Friday against Los Angeles.

AP-ES-03-09-04 2051EST