Crisp shows his game in a tidy package

Coco Crisp (right) earns a tip of the cap from J.D. Drew after he hit a two-run home run off Matt Guerrier in the seventh inning. (Eric Miller/Reuters)

MINNEAPOLIS - Coco Crisp probably said it best. For now he's just "going with the flow."

Right now there's nothing more he can do but remain a Red Sox, contribute, and have nights like last night when he runs around the bases like a world-class athlete (on a triple and on a ninth-inning stolen base) and shows power. He hit a homer lefthanded last night in the seventh inning of Boston's 9-8 loss, after hitting one righthanded the night before.

These are the games when Crisp shows every part of his game as an athletic player who has value to the Red Sox - and likely to several teams who currently are staying away because Crisp makes good money and because the Sox' price tag remains prohibitive. The Sox aren't in great position to move him anyway, with Brandon Moss recovering from an appendectomy and with Bobby Kielty on the minor league disabled list. So manager Terry Francona has been trying to incorporate him, to make sure he gets plenty of action while the rest of Red Sox Nation clamors for Jacoby Ellsbury to be the everyday starter in center field.

"I'm just going with the flow," he repeated. "Things have been stated early in spring training about how I thought about everything. We've got a great group of guys in the front office. Obviously the guys here. I'm a great guy. I like it here a lot, but ultimately anybody would want to play every day, especially guys who feel like they're every-day players.

"Some people can just sit back and go with the flow, and I'm trying to do that myself, but it's difficult at times."

It has been difficult, but there has been no sign of grousing. Part of this season he's spent getting healthy, anyway. Groin strains, hamstrings, a knee problem. He feels he might be getting closer to good health, and at the least he feels he can go 100 percent the days he does play. During games like last night's, he is very exciting, his skills just off the charts. If there was a type of game the Sox were thinking when they let Johnny Damon go and traded with the Indians for Crisp, it was last night's.

In the ninth inning, Crisp came up after J.D. Drew had knocked in a run and hit a shot off Joe Nathan's body that bounded beyond the closer toward shortstop. Nathan, a former shortstop, retrieved the ball with agility and threw Drew out at third. Crisp was safe at first on a fielder's choice, which hitting coach Dave Magadan argued should have been the player's third hit of the night.

"I hit the ball pretty well right there and [Nathan] made a nice play," said Crisp. "A little more to the left, I guess it's a base hit. It's unfortunate that I hit it directly at him. He made a heck of a play on J.D. J.D. obviously did the right thing [going] to third."

Crisp said if it had been a hit instead of a fielder's choice, "you don't even have to worry about it with Manny [Ramírez] coming up behind me."

It didn't work out in the end, with Ramírez grounding to short to end the game, but Crisp certainly did his part. With the Twins holding him on, he managed to steal second base and get into scoring position. In the fourth, he drove a ball down the left-field line that kicked past Delmon Young. Crisp turned on the afterburners and streaked to a triple.

"I guess it's a good feeling for yourself to have a good game," he said. "It's not essential to show what you can do every game. Hopefully people know what I can do. It's a matter of me getting out there and putting it all together, I guess.

"Today was another good game for me. Hopefully I'll have many more to come. There are gonna be some bad games in there. Take it as it comes."

Crisp believes it's hard not to play as regularly as he wants, but he knows it's not as hard as others have it.

"I think one of the hardest things to do in the game of baseball besides being a DH - not for Papi and [Travis] Hafner - is that and being a pinch hitter," he said. "You have 10 days off or you're a bench player and you have to come in and get some hits. That's very tough to do against big league pitching.

"I think Ells [Ellsbury] has been in there a little bit more because he's able to move around. But we've both had consistent at-bats, and you're able to show what you can do."

Crisp felt from his view in center field a couple of ball-strike calls didn't go Tim Wakefield's way and it caused the pitcher to fall behind.

"We started off obviously behind," he said. "A couple of fastballs Wake threw looked like strikes, on the lower portion of the strike zone. That pitch - he usually gets it - and that's key for Wakefield to be able to throw his fastball for a strike. That definitely made it tough and he had to battle from behind a couple of times.

"We were able to fight back and score some runs here and there. They kept scoring as well. It was definitely a battle. We grinded it out right to the end."

At 28, Crisp is in the prime of his career. Even a leadoff-type hitter with speed can add power. Damon developed it late in his career. Will Crisp, who is very strong, develop it as well?

"Before I came over here I played in the Central [Division], obviously, and we're in the Central portion of it right now. The ballparks are configured a lot different than Fenway Park. I hit about seven or eight balls last year that were about the same distance as [his homer last night] but they were caught before the warning track. Absolutely crushed it. But they're outs.

"For myself, I'm not a big power hitter. I can hit home runs, but I'm not gonna put up 40 or 50 like Papi and Manny. A park like [Fenway] can kind of take away from your home runs and statistics."

Crisp had an extra motivation last night. He used a pink bat on Mother's Day to help increase breast cancer awareness. He said he's had people in his family who have had the disease and this game was for them.

But this game was for him as well. It was a night when we saw all the things he does so well. And we'll see how long he can, indeed, go with the flow.