Boston right fielder J.D. Drew has spent 20 of the first 95 Red Sox games on the bench this season.

BOSTON — Thanks to a nagging hamstring strain, J.D. Drew was not in the lineup last night, which may have been just as well for Drew.

For the first time this season, Drew became the target of fans Wednesday night, a repository for their frustration with the team’s month-long slide into undistinguished play. Each unsuccessful plate appearance — he was 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly — seemed to make it worse.

The wonder is that it has taken this long for the fans to express their unhappiness with a player whose very signing engendered little welcome among the faithful.

In 3½ months, Drew has done little to assuage initial fears that the Sox grossly overspent — 5 years, $70 million — to pry him out of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. For that matter, his frequent absenteeism has only helped reinforce the notion that Drew is too quick to come out of the lineup.

“We’re facing a guy who he’s had a lot of success with,” said Terry Francona of Chicago White Sox starter Javier Vazquez, against whom Drew held a career average of .391 with three homers. “We’re trying to do what’s right and it’s not very easy. We would love to play him and he’d love to play. At the same time, we don’t want him to get hurt again.”

This, of course, is a familiar refrain. It’s not the prolonged stints on the disabled list that test teams’ patience; it’s the frequent one- and two-day absences that can be so infuriating. More than one teammate yesterday afternoon, taking note of his exclusion from the lineup card, managed to roll his eyes in response.

Without a visit to the disabled list this season, Drew has already missed 20 of the first 95 Red Sox games. Admittedly, some of those weren’t injury-related. But it speaks volumes that Drew is often held out against lefties. Should the player with the second-highest salary on the team have to be platooned?

Even if one were to give Drew the benefit of the doubt, his production has been negligible. Signed to be the team’s number-five hitter behind the team’s twin turbos, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, Drew has sputtered.

His .380 slugging percentage suggests a weak-hitting utility infielder — by comparison, Alex Cora is slugging .450 — and not a highly paid middle-of-the-lineup corner outfielder. Among American League qualifiers, Drew ranks 73rd in that category, behind such offensive luminaries as Jose Lopez and Mark Ellis.

Meanwhile, his six homers rank him no better than sixth on the Red Sox. Tellingly, four of those have come against National League pitching, leaving him with two round-trippers in 208 A.L. at-bats.

After a hot stretch against N.L. clubs, Drew conceded that his success had to do with comfort and familiarity, a reasonable explanation for someone who spent every one of his first nine seasons in that league.

But when does Drew’s A.L. orientation end and the run production begin?

The Red Sox are fond of saying that they judge long-term investments as just that — long-term — which is as it should be. But in the here-and-now, if the Sox had wanted a right fielder with spotty power who had difficulty staying in the lineup, they could have merely re-signed Trot Nixon.

Beyond the astonishing lack of power, Drew has yet to take advantage of his new home ballpark. In more than half a season, Drew has hit The Wall just three times. So much for those who envisioned him as the second coming of Fred Lynn.

Of late, the Sox have instead used Drew in the leadoff spot, to cover for the deficiencies of another slow-starting free agent signing, Julio Lugo, and if nothing else, Drew has maintained his ability to reach base.

But surely the Sox expected more for their money, and after a rather generous grace period, fans are now starting to demand it.

smcadam@projo.com