FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Trot Nixon hopes to start working out again Tuesday in his comeback from a back injury. But he’s not sure he’ll be

ready for Boston’s regular-season opener at Baltimore on April 4.

“I hope I’m in right field. I can’t guarantee anything,” he said before the team’s 5-2 win Sunday over the Orioles.

Nixon hasn’t played in an exhibition game and received an epidural injection last week for pain caused by a disc pressing on a nerve. He said his condition has improved but stiffness remains.

The injury “might never come back,” Nixon said. “It might come back in a week. It can come back in the middle of the year. But that procedure that I had, it can be done again.”

Nixon said he hopes to swing a bat on Tuesday, perhaps hitting a ball off a tee.

“If everything goes well on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday, hopefully I can see some action,” he said, although the medical personnel will have a say. “That’s probably a lot faster than they want.”

Brian’s back

Brian Daubach is making a solid bid to stick with the Red Sox, the team he returned to after spending last season with the Chicago White Sox.

The first baseman-outfielder is 6-for-19 in eight spring training games and hit a grand slam in Saturday’s 6-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2000, 2001 and 2002, he hit at least 20 homers for Boston.

Daubach, who went 0-for-1 Sunday, has the inside track if Francona decides to keep a left-handed hitter off the bench.

“He understood the importance of coming in ready, coming in non-roster and you’re trying to win a spot,” Francona said. “He’s got some thunder in his bat and he knows how to hit. He’s been very impressive.”

Schill on the hill

Pitching against Red Sox minor-leaguers in an intrasquad game may have been just the non-pressure game Curt Schilling needed.

He threw 62 pitches Saturday after working 6 2-3 innings in his other two outings, both at night.

“He gets geared up anyway, but night games he gets a little extra velocity and I thought that was good to kind of back him up” in a minor league game, Francona said. “There’s no repercussions if you hang a breaking ball.”

Schilling could have pitched against Toronto on Saturday, but Derek Lowe started that game, in part because Schilling doesn’t want to face divisional rivals in spring training.

“If Schill feels like this is really helping him it probably is,” Francona said.

Planning ahead

Francona plans to let players know the previous day if they’ll be in the lineup. That should help those who will play to prepare and those who won’t play to get over their disappointment.

“He can be mad and get it out of his system before he shows up at the ballpark,” Francona said. “The guys that don’t play every day appreciate knowing that they’re going to be in there the next day.”