FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – The first batter Jon Papelbon faced in spring training lined the ball back at his left foot. If it hit his heel, he’d be fine. But if it struck his ankle, his promising season could suffer a serious blow.

It hit his heel.

“I got lucky,” he said. “Count your blessings and move on.”

The Red Sox right-hander makes his second start of the exhibition season as scheduled today against the Baltimore Orioles, five days after Shannon Stewart’s shot nailed him in Boston’s opener, a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

“I should have come out because it was pretty sore the next day and it was pretty sore at the time,” Papelbon said. “It took me a while to get feeling back in it, but I just didn’t really want to come out.”

That determination is one reason the Red Sox are so high on the 25-year-old power pitcher. That and the fact that after being called up last July 31 he went 3-1 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 games with 34 strikeouts in 34 innings.

Ultimately, he’d like to be a starter, but Boston has six veterans competing for five spots in the rotation. Papelbon pitched very well last year in middle relief and even has the pitch repertoire to close if Keith Foulke, apparently healthy after offseason knee surgery, falters in his return to that role.

Papelbon’s second start comes two days after the spring training debut of another top prospect, left-hander Jon Lester.

They were minor league teammates the past two seasons, and Lester, who led the Eastern League last year with a 2.61 ERA and 163 strikeouts, pitched two scoreless innings in a 3-0 win Sunday night over the Australian team in the World Baseball Classic.

“I thought he pounded the strike zone well,” Papelbon said. “I thought he challenged hitters and went right after them.”

He and Papelbon are similar pitchers, Lester said, but Papelbon is “a little more intense, more focused.”

Papelbon also is more outgoing and could start the season in the rotation while Lester begins at Triple-A Pawtucket. But both should be mainstays of the Red Sox staff, perhaps by next year, and could benefit from each other’s presence.

“You’re, in a sense, competing with your teammates, saying, “I want to be the best guy,'” Papelbon said. “It’s not like a competing, like I hope he does bad, sense at all. It’s a competing that you do your best, I’m going to go out there and do my best and we’ll see what happens.”

He thinks Lester can be in the majors this season, possibly by the All-Star break, but knows the lefty faces a big move to Triple-A.

“That was my hardest jump,” Papelbon said. “It will be a good test for him this year because in Double-A you don’t necessarily have (former) big league hitters in lineups. In Triple-A, you do.”

Papelbon made that jump. He had a 2.93 ERA with 27 strikeouts and three walks in 27 2-3 innings in seven appearances at Pawtucket last season after pitching 14 games at Double-A Portland. Then he excelled in Boston but didn’t dwell on his success during the offseason.

“I never really sat down and said, “wow, I did a good job,’ ” Papelbon said, because “I was expecting it for myself. … I was never really in awe.”

John Flaherty, who played for the New York Yankees last season then caught Papelbon in his exhibition opener, was impressed.

“We saw him last year out of the bullpen and we knew he had a great arm,” Flaherty said, “but I didn’t realize he had four quality pitches. He’s a young guy with great stuff, but I think, more important, he’s got an idea what he’s doing with that stuff.”

Papelbon wasn’t worried that he allowed two runs, the first on Torii Hunter’s homer, and four hits while facing nine batters in 1 2-3 innings last Thursday.

He was more concerned about Stewart’s liner.

“It was scary. That’s a moment where your career or your season flashes before your eyes,” he said. “If that ball hits me higher on my foot, I’m probably out for a long, long time. That’s just luck.”