Drew still doesn't know what to do

NEW YORK -- Until J.D. Drew starts hitting home runs and driving in big runs, the $14 million-a-year outfielder will not have much comfort in Boston. Nor will he have acceptance.

Especially on those nights like Tuesday, when Drew struck out on a halfhearted swing with the tying runs aboard in the eighth inning of a 5-3 loss at Yankee Stadium. Or last night, when he whiffed on another lackluster check swing right after Kevin Youkilis had pulled the Red Sox within 4-3 with a two-run blast in the eighth.

To Drew's credit, he hasn't run away from the criticism either.

The right fielder, who signed a five-year, $70 million deal, knows he hasn't performed well. He knows an at-bat like Tuesday's won't go over well in Red Sox Nation. But he's also working hard to figure out why he's struggling.

"I was talking to [hitting coach Dave] Magadan the other day," said Drew, who did have one of two hits off Roger Clemens last night. "Things get magnified because I'm not hitting home runs. When you're hitting .230, the last thing you're trying to do is hit home runs. You just want to have a good approach going up to the plate. I really just have to battle to get that line-drive stroke back and just get that good feel going again. I've never tried to hit home runs."

He says the right things and wants to do well. But he isn't. He's already lost the No. 5 spot in the order to Mike Lowell. He actually was the team's leadoff hitter for a while. He was supposed to be platooning with Bobby Kielty because he's been overmatched by lefthanders, but on Tuesday Terry Francona let him hit against Andy Pettitte because he entered the game 6 for 14 with two homers against him. But Drew couldn't buy a hit. He hit one ball hard, but it went for a double play.

"[Pettitte] threw me some really good cutters down and away, one of which I got around on and hit it well right at the second baseman for a double-play ball," said Drew. "I missed a couple of pitches up and out over the plate and fouled them off. He made some good pitches in really good, key situations."

He acknowledges transitioning to the American League has been tougher than he ever imagined.

A reminder of this is Edgar Renteria, who didn't adapt well to his first season in Boston and was shipped to Atlanta. Could Renteria have adapted to Boston? Probably. But it wasn't going to happen in one year.

"I think this year has definitely been a transition year, getting acclimated to the American League, facing pitchers I'd never faced before. It's not been the ideal situation in that it's not the type of year I wanted to come in here and have," Drew said. "There's a lot of years ahead and games ahead. The big thing for me is to finish strong in the final month, and then in the playoffs you reset everything and do all I can to help this team.

"It's just a different way of baseball," he added. "You play longer games. You have the DH. Pitchers work a little bit differently. The mentality is a little bit different. I've tried to battle through it and stay focused through the whole thing. I think I'm finally winning that thing."

Drew doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself, but he is looking forward to next season.

"I think the second year is always a little bit easier," he said. "I found that when you're transitioning, that first year is always difficult. Getting to another team, getting to know your teammates. You go into your second year and spring training is always easier. I have hit balls hard at people, and that's not an excuse. You take what you can get, and I've had to battle to even get to where I am right now. Hopefully, I can have another good month and see where things stand by the end of the season."

Another criticism of Drew is that he's been too selective at the plate. One of the reasons general manager Theo Epstein and his staff were so enamored with Drew was his .393 on-base percentage entering the season. Drew seems to take that patience a little too far, often seeming passive and letting good pitches go by without offering, especially when the team needs a big hit.

"At points, you can be [too selective] but sometimes your at-bat isn't what you want it to be and you go back and watch it and you have a pitch that gets called a strike that's a ball and you see it again and you're right, it's a ball," Drew said. "That happens to everybody, but you have to be aggressive on the pitch you're looking for. [Joba Chamberlain] throws me a fastball at 98 miles per hour Tuesday night on the black. Well, I'm looking for a pitch I can do something with. I swing at that and I'm going to have a broken bat and pop up somewhere. But that's the kind of hitter I am: I know exactly what I'm looking for."

He said with Chamberlain, whom he had never seen before, "I felt the first pitch was a borderline strike and he painted me down and away with a 98-m.p.h. fastball. After that, he threw me a couple of fastballs. It got to 3-2 and I was thinking there was no way he would throw a slider in that situation and he threw a pitch that was 89 m.p.h., a little bit above knee-high, and fell out of the zone and I couldn't stop my swing. When you have to protect the strike zone when someone is throwing 100 m.p.h., you tend to get out there a little bit early."

It's obvious Drew thinks through his at-bats. Maybe too much. He seems to agonize over every pitch. If it's not just right, he won't swing. He knows himself well enough that if he swings at a certain pitch he's uncomfortable with, the result won't be positive.

"The thing I try to remind myself a lot and joke around about is I get to .260 or .265 and then I hit balls hard and they catch them against the wall. You have to go through it. You have to roll with it," he said. "I just went through some struggles where I couldn't find what I was looking for. I went through a couple of long slumps that really hurt me. I feel good now at the plate. My approach is where I want it to be."

Some thought he would be overwhelmed playing in Boston, when really it's the opposite. Drew has never been one let criticism get to him. For the most part, he shuts it out, something he's always been able to do.

"What makes everything tough is when you're not living up to what you want to do," said Drew. "No matter where you're playing, you have to go out there, see the ball, and hit it. There's great excitement in playing in Boston, just like there was in St. Louis because you're playing in front of a packed house every night. People are into every game and hanging on every pitch."

In turn, people look at the contract and shake their heads. Drew knows fans dwell on his salary.

"I'm sure that's part of it," he said. "That's just the nature of how the game has gone with the business nature of things. Once that stuff is settled, you have to remove yourself from it and just concentrate on doing the things you'd always done. By no means has this season gone the way I wanted it to. The big key for me is to finish strong. I'd like to be able to redeem myself in that way. I've got four more years here, and that's what I'm excited about."

Drew hopes fans will get excited, too.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.