PAULEY

PAWTUCKET — Over the course of three days, David Pauley went from preparing for a start in Pawtucket, to not starting, to sitting in a Boston hotel room, to possibly starting in Boston, to not starting in Boston, to starting in Boston again. And less than 24 hours after getting that start at Fenway, the 24-year-old right-hander was already back at McCoy.

Just another day in the life of a minor-leaguer.

“It’s kind of one of those things you just have to be able to do,” said Pauley, recalled to Boston late Tuesday to fill in for Josh Beckett — who couldn’t take the mound because of a stiff neck — and was then optioned back to Pawtucket.

“Being in the situation where I’m at, just kind of a middle-of-the-road guy, I always have to be ready and whatever happens happens. Whether it’s a couple minutes’ notice or a couple hours’ notice, it’s just one of those things that you’ve got to go with.”

In this case, Pauley said he got a call about four hours before game time saying he wasn’t pitching against the Angels and then another an hour later saying that he was. While it might not have been the most ideal of conditions, sometimes not having much time to think isn’t such a bad thing, he says.

“I think the nice thing was I really didn’t have time to prepare for it, didn’t have time to get worried about it or anything,” he said. “I just showed up and just tried to treat it as any other day. Of course it’s going to be different, but I had guys backing me up and I knew that, so I just went in and said, ‘Let’s go and see what we can do.’ ”

Pauley lasted 4 1/3 innings in Boston’s 7-6 win, scattering seven hits and giving up five earned runs, including a two-run homer in the fourth to Jeff Mathis.

“I kept the team in the ball game and gave them an opportunity to score some runs, and that’s pretty much what they called me up there to do,” he said. “So under the circumstances, I did OK. Obviously in my eyes, I would have wanted to do better, but I’ll just build on that.”

“David was outstanding [Tuesday],” said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson. “I talked to him numerous times. He was prepared either way. He was either going to start in Boston [Tuesday] or start here [yesterday]. He went out. He got his work in. He did a nice job. One guy got him with the homer. Outside of that, I was really proud of what he did.”

Johnson considers preparing young players for the unpredictability of professional baseball to be one of his prime responsibilities.

“I think that goes hand in hand with what we try to do in this organization, especially at this level,” he said. “With every one of these guys, we talked about these situations from the beginning, from the first day we walked in here, even in spring training. And I think they get a feel for it in spring training. They start in big-league camp and they get sent down to minor-league camp. And [Red Sox minor-league field coordinator Rob Leary] will tell guys on a daily or hourly basis, ‘Hey, you’re going to the big leagues tomorrow. You’re going on the trip.’ And we try to get as much of that out here so that they can see it. It’s going to happen here that way.”

Pauley says the discussions have been extremely helpful in dealing with the ups and downs of the season.

“It’s phenomenal,” he said. We [understand that] we’re not really playing to play here; we’re playing to play in Boston to help them out in situations where they might need somebody, like what happened [Tuesday]. We talk about it every day, the preparation that we need to go through and how we need to attack every day — the same way here as up there.”

cthorn@projo.com