ANAHEIM, Calif. — Talk to Jason Bay about playoff pressure, and he’ll talk to you about Manny Ramirez.

“Try getting traded for Manny on August 1st,” he said before the opening game of the American League Division Series last night. “That wasn’t exactly a normal game. I’ve already been under a lot of pressure. Playing in the postseason for the first time isn’t going to make any difference.”

And it didn’t . . . if the two-run homer Bay hit in the sixth inning, which gave Boston a 2-1 lead, is any indication.

With the Pirates, Bay played in near-anonymity for a small-market team with almost no shot at postseason play. In Boston, he stepped into one of the brightest spotlights in baseball when he stepped into the spikes of Ramirez — a future Hall of Famer — in left field for the defending World Series champions.

And he’s loved it.

“It’s been an incredible turnaround,” he said, “going from a team that was 30 games behind to one that expects to win every night.”

It was thanks to Bay that the Red Sox won on his first night in a Boston uniform.

He scored the winning run against Oakland in the 12th inning after hitting a two-out triple high off the Green Monster.

He went on to hit safely in his first seven games for Boston, going 12-for-30.

In 49 games for the Sox this season, he has batted .293, with 9 homers and 37 RBI — if not exactly Manny-like, then pretty darn close to it.

“Jason Bay is a really good player,” said Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, who was the MVP in the 2007 World Series, when Boston swept Colorado. “He’s been under the radar playing in a small market. But he’s a guy who can carry a team.”

Bay has proven to be more than capable of carrying his share of the load for the Sox, who had to be concerned about a drop off in offensive production after Ramirez was dealt to the Dodgers.

But Angels manager Mike Scioscia states emphatically that with the addition of Bay, and with Kevin Youkilis providing power in the cleanup spot, the Boston batting order still packs plenty of punch.

“They’ve retooled during the season,” Scioscia said yesterday afternoon. “They’re as dangerous as they’ve ever been on the offensive side. They have guys that know how to hit with guys in scoring position. I don’t think there’s much of a drop off.”

While Manny had worn out his welcome in Boston, Bay says he loves playing in a place where the ballpark is full every night and postseason play is a regular occurrence.

“It’s a blast,” he said. “It’s nice, not being at home watching these games on television, like I have been in the past.”

Bay was a star in Pittsburgh, although only the most ardent hardball fans around the country took notice; it wasn’t as if the Pirates appeared very often on national TV.

He was rookie of year — the only Pittsburgh player ever to win that award — in 2004, when he hit .282, with 26 homers.

He followed that by hitting .306 in 2005, with 32 homers and 101 RBI, then hit 35 home runs and drove in 109 runs — both career highs — in ’06, although his average slipped slightly, to .286.

After slumping last year, when he batted just .247, with 21 homers, Bay has bounced back this year.

Part of the reason has been his renewed enthusiasm for the game since coming to Boston.

“People who have never played here don’t know what it’s like,” he said. “I don’t see how anyone can play for this team in this atmosphere for any amount of time and not like it.”

It’s hard to see how anyone could not like Bay, who’s a pleasant guy, as well as a talented, hard-working team player.

He doesn’t think of it as pressure that he has had to replace Ramirez in left field. Instead, he thinks of it as a challenge — one he has welcomed.

“All kinds of personalities play this game,” he said. “Guys from big towns. Guys from small towns. I’ve been playing baseball since I was eight years old. Whether it says ‘Red Sox’ on my uniform or ‘Pirates’ or ‘Little League,’ the baseball field is where I feel comfortable.”

jdonalds@projo.com