PAWTUCKET — Now that he has settled in to his new surroundings, Chris Carter has begun showing everyone why he is a highly regarded hitter.

While pitchers have dominated in the cold in most Pawtucket Red Sox games, Carter has been the exception. He has given the fans something to cheer about when the PawSox are at the plate. He has made it clear he is a hitter who could help the parent team down the road.

Carter is the player obtained as the player to be named later in the Wily Mo Pena trade with Washington last summer. He hit .310 over four seasons in the Arizona system, and with some pop. He was at .324 with 18 homers and 84 RBI in 126 games at Tucson when the Sox got him. Carter played 12 games with the PawSox , but hit only .234 and had just one home run.

With so many players getting promoted to Boston, notably Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, and with others such as Brandon Moss and Jed Lowrie on the way, Carter has flown under the radar.

Not right now, though. Manager Ron Johnson installed Carter in the cleanup spot in the first game and Carter has not moved yet.

Carter went 1-for-4 last night as Pawtucket beat Lehigh Valley, 2-0, and his hit was a big one. He singled to lead off the eighth and moved to third on a double by Moss. Both scored on Keith Ginter’s single up the middle.

“He’s swinging the bat well,” Johnson said of Carter. “He’s living up to what we had heard about him when he came over here last year.

“He swings the bat, no doubt,” Johnson added. “He gives you a professional at-bat each time up. He has knowledge of the strike zone. He trusts his hands and his ability enough to where he’s not afraid to hit with two strikes.”

The lefty had an awesome 1.317 OPS entering play last night — an on-base percentage of .542 (nine hits and four walks in 23 plate appearances) and a slugging percentage of .700 (five of his nine hits were doubles).

Carter, who was a teammate of Lowie at Stanford, is a mix of Nomar Garciaparra and Wade Boggs.

He brings back memories of Garciaparra when he steps to the plate. He is in constant motion. Like Garciaparra, he loves to step away from the plate and tug on his batting gloves between pitches. He is in constant motion as he awaits a pitch, his bat waving and never stopping until he gets ready to attack a pitch. Carter even wears Garciaparra’s No. 5 uniform.

It is with his approach to hitting where he is more like Boggs. He loves talking hitting. He studies it, as Boggs did.

“I work on it all the time. I have a lot of drills I do,” he said. “A lot of one-hand drills, a lot of drills that I work on. . . I work on everything, staying back, especially with two strikes.”

In Tuesday’s victory over Lehigh Valley, Carter reached base all four trips to the plate, with two hits and two walks. His two hits came off J.A. Happ, a 6-foot-6 hard-throwing southpaw. They reflected how he tries to prepare himself all each situation. Against a tough lefty like Happ, Carter focuses on keeping his front shoulder in.

“I focus on staying on top of the plate, not diving back, especially on a curve ball. Sometimes that curve ball looks like it’s going to be more inside. I try to keep that front shoulder in.”

Last night, he began 0-for-3. But then in the eighth he had the single that started the winning rally.

pkenyon@projo.com