Sox hope Drew stays in the swing of things

This past month? This has been one of those that renews the faith in the Sox’ right fielder.

“If you could put it in a bottle and sell it, you’d make a lot of money,’’ said Drew, referring to his productive streaks. “It’s just one of those things with baseball, you go for a stretch where you just, you work hard, you do things, things just don’t click at the plate. Then all of a sudden you finally get a little rhythm and it seems like you see the ball well, you make good judgments, you don’t swing at bad pitches, then when you do swing at the pitch usually that you can handle, you finally hit it where you get it on the good spot of the bat and it finds a gap somewhere.’’

There was June of 2008, when Drew took it upon himself to make up for the loss of David Ortiz. He batted .337 with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs. He covered for the big bats, made up the difference, and helped the Sox keep winning. There was September of 2007, when Drew pushed the Sox toward the World Series, and batted .342 with four homers and 18 RBIs. Then there was this past month, when he batted .329 with six homers and 13 RBIs. He helped stabilize the offense from the eighth spot in the order.

But, all in all, the numbers are stark. Drew has hit at least .300 in just four of his 17 months with the Red Sox during the regular season. He has hit less than .240 in five of those months. Even his hot August has brought up his average this season to just .265, with 18 homers and 53 RBIs.

“It was in Texas, I came off that road trip really, honestly feeling like I could have gotten five or six hits out of 20 at-bats and I had zero,’’ Drew said. “When you hit a ball 407 feet to center field and the right fielder catches it, that’s when it’s going pretty bad. You just throw your helmet down, walk to the position, and finish playing defense. That’s about it. It’s nice to have things turn around a little bit and head in the right direction. It’s a good time for it to happen.’’

The Sox hope that the results he’s shown at the plate lately will carry over into this month and October.