BOSTON –– It isn’t just that J.D. Drew is getting base hits lately. It isn’t just that he suddenly has become an extra-base machine.

The most important element to Drew’s surge, which included a first-inning triple, a sixth-inning homer and an eighth-inning single yesterday, is that he is hitting the ball to all fields. That means he has been showing great balance at the plate, staying back and driving the ball where it has been pitched.

His triple came on a fastball that was down and away. Drew, a left-handed hitter, bashed that pitch to left-center, where it eluded the lunge of center fielder Ichiro Suzuki, ticking off his glove and bouncing to the wall. The homer came on a knuckleball down the middle, which he crushed over the wall next to the camera station in center. The RBI single came when he hooked a grounder through the right side.

In his other at-bats, he laced a pitch on the outer half of the plate for a scorching lineout to shortstop in the third and in the fourth, he turned on an inside pitch and drilled a bullet right at the second baseman.

Since returning from a bout of vertigo in Baltimore last weekend, Drew has gone 13-for-24 (.542) with three homers, a triple, three doubles and eight RBI.

Over the first five games of the homestand, Drew is 10-for-17 (.588). Check out the location of the hits. He has had a homer to right, a homer to center, a triple to left-center, two doubles to left-center, a double off the wall in left, three singles to center and a single to right.

That’s a great illustration of hitting the ball where it’s pitched, an approach that, given the compact, flawless mechanics Drew has been showing at the plate recently, puts the Sox right fielder in a position to succeed every time he’s in the batter’s box. He also has been patient, drawing five walks

And his hot streak couldn’t come at a better time, with David Ortiz (left wrist) on the shelf. Drew has thrived (8-for-14, .571) since being moved up into Ortiz’s No. 3 spot in the batting order.

That’ll cost you …

A double play not turned cost the Sox a run in the third.

With runners at first and second and none out, Jose Lopez hit a double-play bouncer to Kevin Youkilis at third base.

The ball short-hopped him a bit, and hit off his chest. Youkilis recovered in time to throw out Lopez, but that left runners at second and third with one out. Raul Ibanez cashed in both runners with an 0-and-2 ground-rule double down the right-field line that tied the game at 2-2.

The hit prompted Youkilis to kick at the dirt, knowing that had he been able to cleanly field the ball, Ibanez’s hit would have scored only one run.

…and so will that

There is a danger in bringing in a knuckleball pitcher with a runner on third base, as Seattle manager John McLaren found out yesterday.

The pitch can be difficult for a catcher to handle. Every knuckler is a passed ball or a wild pitch waiting to happen.

McLaren brought in R.A. Dickey with the bases filled and two outs in the fifth, and the Mariners down by only two runs, at 4-2.

Dickey’s second pitch clanged off the glove of catcher Kenji Johjima for a passed ball, gift-wrapping a run for Boston.

Small change

Jose Vidro is a switch-hitter, and Tim Wakefield is a right-handed pitcher.

Normally Vidro bats left-handed against right-handed pitchers, but as happens often against Wakefield, the batter will choose to hit from what he considers to be his better side at the plate.

The reason that is done is because, as a knuckleball pitcher, Wakefield isn’t as tough to face for a right-handed hitter, who doesn’t have to worry about a nasty slider or curveball breaking away from him. When it’s dancing, the knuckleball is equally baffling from the right and left sides of the plate.

So Vidro, a career .302 hitter who has similar stats from each side of the plate, elected to bat right-handed. This season, he was batting .254 from the right side and only .214 as a left-handed hitter. Vidro might want to consider hitting left-handed next time against Wakefield. He went 0-for-3 against him yesterday.

skrasner@projo.com