NEW YORK – The remarkable run of Adrian Gonzalez added a new chapter on Saturday night.

The first baseman had been overmatched in three at-bats by Yankees starter CC Sabathia, who was blowing fastballs up and in past the slugger. There had been a punchout on a fastball that almost hit him in the neck in the first inning, contributing to the Sox stranding a runner on third. There were a pair of broken-bat groundouts – one to first, one with the bases loaded and one out that resulted in an inning-ending double play.

The at-bats had been uncomfortable for Gonzalez, who struggled to see the ball against the Yankees’ mammoth left-hander. And so, as he prepared to hit with two on and one out in the top of the seventh inning, Gonzalez confided in Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

“He said, ‘I’m going to give it a little Ichiro and leak a little bit,’” Francona recounted, a suggestion that meant that he would begin his stride early and open his hips to get a better look at the ball and to start his swing earlier. (Recap.)

And on a 1-0 pitch, Gonzalez perfectly timed his transformation into the Japanese superstar, though with different results. Where Ichiro collects singles as no one else in major league history, Gonzalez unloaded on a 94 mph fastball from Sabathia, lining it into the right field grandstand for a three-run homer that delivered the final runs of Boston’s 6-0 victory.

“He amazes me,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “When you say you’re going to do it and then you do it, that’s pretty impressive.”

Gonzalez is on what seems like a remarkable tear, yet it’s actually a stretch that has plenty of precedent in his career. He has now homered in four straight contests, but while that would likely be a career highlight for most, this run actually represents the fourth time that he’s had such a stretch since the start of the 2009 season. (Only one other player in the majors – Matt Kemp of the Dodgers – has managed to go on such a streak as many as three times in the last three seasons.)

This is not even the longest longball-hitting stretch of Gonzalez’ career. In May 2009, he homered in five straight games with the Padres.

Even so, there is no way to diminish what Gonzalez is doing. Even his teammates have been in awe of the first baseman, who has now hit eight homers in his last 11 games, and five in his last four.

“He’s pretty [expletive] good, isn’t he?” pitcher Josh Beckett offered.

It is an incredible run. And in some ways, it is made all the more incredible by something that is not occurring during it.

Opposing teams are not walking Gonzalez. He has just one walk – when the Yankees gave him an intentional free pass on Friday night in order to face cleanup hitter Kevin Youkilis – during his current four-game streak.

The fact that teams are challenging him represents the continuation of a trend. Through 39 games this year – almost a quarter of the season – Gonzalez has just 12 walks, a pace that would yield just 50 free passes over the course of a 162-game season.

That would be the fewest walks that Gonzalez has received since becoming a big league regular in 2006. He hasn’t had as many as two walks in any of his last 26 games – the first time since the summer of 2008 that he has gone through a spell of so many consecutive contests without multiple free passes.

Considering that Gonzalez averaged 95 walks a year over the past three years with the Padres – including a major league-leading 119 free passes in 2009 – the development represents a striking turn of events.

In San Diego, the slugger was usually the only real force in the Padres lineup. Pitchers could steer clear of him because there were few consequences to doing so.

In Boston, there has been greater reluctance for opposing pitchers to take such a tactic of avoidance. He has spent the year with power-hitting threats behind him (David Ortiz at the start of the year, Kevin Youkilis for most of it). Moreover, he has often had men on the bases in front of him (Youkilis when Gonzalez served as the Sox’ cleanup hitter; Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia now).  

There has rarely been a place for opponents to put Gonzalez on the bases, at a time when he has received a form of lineup protection to which he is unaccustomed. And so, he has been in a position to see pitches that he can damage.

“In San Diego, I walked because I knew pitchers weren’t going to pitch to me. Here, I’ve got Youk, Pedey and Papi. They’re going to pitch to everybody. They’ve got no choice,” said Gonzalez. “My approach the whole time in San Diego was to be ready to hit. It’s just that pitch never came. It was ball one, ball two, ball three, strike one and then ball four. Where here, I’m getting pitches out over the plate.”

The development is certainly welcome. As with any hitter, Gonzalez would rather have an opportunity to drive pitches than head to the plate cognizant that he might get only one offering to drive – if that.

“I’m not a guy who’s up there looking to walk. I’ve never been that guy. But if the pitcher wanted to walk me, I’ll take my walk,” said Gonzalez. “That’s our job. Look for a pitch to hit. If it’s not a good pitch to hit, you take it.”

Right now, Gonzalez is seeing pitches to hit. And when he does, he is not wasting them.

“I’m swinging at the pitches I want to swing at. When you’re in a good streak, you put the pitches you want in play,” he explained. “When you’re not feeling good, you don’t put the pitches you want in play. Or when you do put them in play, you don’t put them in play the way you want to. But you’ll never hear of me looking to walk at the plate. If I walk, I walk. I’m not up there looking to walk.”

That said, Gonzalez also has few reservations about being walked, particularly given where he resides in the Red Sox lineup. When David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were paired together for their devastating run in the middle of the order, opposing teams often commented that they had to pick their poison.

Now, Gonzalez feels as if the Sox have created a similar dynamic. Certainly, the Sox lineup is built in a way that lends itself to dramatically different treatment from what the first baseman experienced in San Diego.

Saturday night offered a perfect illustration. With runners on second and third and one out in the fifth inning, the Yankees intentionally walked Pedroia to load the bases in front of Gonzalez. Such a strategy would have been inconceivable with the slugger’s former team in recent years.

It was the first time that a hitter had been intentionally walked in front of Gonzalez since Jeff Francis and the Rockies delivered a free pass to Kevin Kouzmanoff to face the first baseman on Aug. 31, 2008. That strategy proved successful, with Francis punching out Gonzalez.

So, too, did New York’s decision to put Pedroia on base to load the bases for Gonzalez. With the bases loaded, Sabathia shattered Gonzalez’ bat to induce an inning-ending double play.

“I would have done the same thing,” said Gonzalez. “Did you see the way I wasn’t picking up the ball? CC’s a really tough pitcher against left-handed hitters. It’s a smart managerial move.”

It was that outcome that led Gonzalez to change his approach, resulting in his seventh-inning homer. Yet one gets the sense that, as Gonzalez shows the ability to adapt in the batter vs. pitcher cat-and-mouse game, teams will choose to spend less time tempting fire by pitching to the first baseman.

On Friday, after all, with a runner on third and one out, the Yankees intentionally walked Gonzalez. The inning subsided without a run.

Yet Gonzalez will be more than happy to accept a free pass if another team wants to raise four fingers.

“I’ll take my walk there,” said Gonzalez. “For me, it’s a great situation to be in because I’ll take that walk and have Youk and Papi come up any day of the week. Please, intentionally walk me – there’s more danger behind.”

As he embraces the mentality that he is not solely responsible for the performance of a lineup, Gonzalez has seemingly become incredibly dangerous in his own right.