Boston has speed and ace up its sleeve

BOSTON (AP) – Daisuke Matsuzaka and all the cameramen who focused on him were only some of the newcomers to Boston’s spring training camp.

Overshadowed by all the Dice-K mania were J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo, who brought extra offense to the Red Sox, and rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who showed plenty of potential.

Even 40-year-old ace Curt Schilling tried something new: a changeup. And a team known for its power found an unusual way to score – by running the bases aggressively.

The Red Sox had the fewest steals in the majors last year, when they missed the playoffs and came in third in the AL East after eight straight second-place finishes.

“It’s always a bit of a priority to get good baserunners,” general manager Theo Epstein said. “It’s not just stealing bases, but making good decisions and being selectively aggressive and intelligently aggressive on the bases that adds up to some runs.

“And that can be the difference in making the playoffs or not.”

Boston’s two fastest runners are Lugo, who will lead off, and Coco Crisp, who will bat eighth.

No. 2 hitter Kevin Youkilis handles the bat well, which should put Lugo in scoring position a lot with sluggers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez following in the lineup. Then comes Drew, the productive No. 5 batter Boston lacked last year.

“We want to use all of our available ways to beat the opponent and, if speed is part of it, good,” manager Terry Francona said.

Matsuzaka is another way to do that.

A dominant pitcher for eight seasons in Japan, he signed a six-year, $52 million contract with the Red Sox after they bid $51.11 million for the right to negotiate with him. With all that money came high expectations from fans.

“Within myself, there is maybe a baseline for success,” Matsuzaka said through a translator. “I have certain expectations toward myself but, as for giving you a hard number (of wins), what that might be, that’s something I can’t do.”

Drew also prefers to perform rather than predict.

“When you look back when it’s all over, hopefully your team’s in the playoffs and your numbers are right where you want them to be,” he said.

Drew was one of Boston’s best hitters in spring training and a smooth fielder after he signed a five-year, $70 million contract as a free agent after two seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also showed his running ability in one game when he legged out a triple, then trotted home on a throw into the dugout.

His hustle belies the view, expressed by his former manager in St. Louis, Tony La Russa, that he lacks passion. Drew even was criticized once by Schilling, then with Philadelphia, for refusing to sign after the Phillies took him with the second pick of the 1997 draft.

Now Drew is headed to Fenway Park, where he’s confident he can ignore chants of demanding fans if he slumps.

“I broke in in a crazy circumstance and had to deal with a lot of different stuff,” Drew said. “You have to be strong to play this game at any level with any team.”

Last season, he led the Dodgers with 100 RBIs and tied for the team lead with 20 homers. Now, he’s batting behind Ortiz (team-record 54 homers and an AL-high 137 RBIs) and Ramirez (35 HRs, 102 RBIs).

“These guys are fun to watch. Fans go crazy when they come up to bat,” Drew said. “A lot of people say, “You’re going to hit with a lot of runners on base,’ and I say, “Well, I don’t know how many runners are going to be on base with those two guys hitting in front of me.”‘

Mike Lowell should get plenty of RBI chances batting after Drew, who was 10th in on-base percentage in the NL last year.

“He does things in a way that makes it look like the game comes really natural to him,” Epstein said. “It looks like he’s kind of born to play baseball.”

Just as Jonathan Papelbon might have closing in his DNA.

With about 10 days left in spring training, the Red Sox abandoned their effort to turn Papelbon, who had 35 saves as a rookie last year, into a starter.

The move was welcomed by Papelbon. It “made a lot of people smile” in Boston’s clubhouse, catcher Jason Varitek said.

The Red Sox should still have a good rotation with three pitchers who had strong exhibition seasons – Schilling (1.71 ERA), Matsuzaka (2.04) and Josh Beckett (3.04). They might give Boston an edge over the injury-plagued rotation of their AL East rivals, the New York Yankees.

The middle relief remains a question mark with several newcomers – Brendan Donnelly, Hideki Okajima, Joel Pineiro and J.C. Romero.

But Jon Lester, pitching again after receiving chemotherapy for anaplastic large cell lymphoma, is scheduled to make four starts in Class-A and could be ready to return to Boston soon after that.

Last season, the Red Sox were 9-21 in August. Ramirez missed 28 of the last 36 games with what the club said was right knee tendinitis but might not have been that serious.

“The thing I like best about the club (now) is there are no egos on display,” Epstein said. “The guys had a real team feeling from Day 1.”

AP-ES-03-30-07 2008EDT