When Adrian Gonzalez arrived in Boston, he was hailed as the next great Red Sox slugger. But of late, his numbers have been more in line with those of his childhood hero, Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

He leads the majors in batting average (.350) and also paces the sport in runs batted in (92), while contributing a .411 OBP, .554 slugging percentage and .965 OPS. All of those numbers are nothing short of exceptional; all would represent single season career highs.

Yet for roughly a month, Gonzalez has been productive but with limited power. On July 7, just a few days before the end of the first half, he hit his 17th homer of the year, and was on pace to go deep 32 times. Since then, however, in 27 Red Sox games, he’s gone deep just once.

That said, Gonzalez has remained a tremendously productive hitter even in the absence of those big power numbers. He owns a .346 average and .419 OBP over a four-week span, but with just six doubles and one homer in that stretch, he has a modest .430 slugging percentage over the four-week stretch.

Gonzalez, however, insists that the absence of home runs is not cause for concern. To the contrary, he’s quite pleased with his results at the plate.

“I know what I’m doing at the plate. I know what my body is doing, and I’m hitting the ball hard on a consistent basis. What more could I ask for?” Gonzalez said during the weekend. “I’m hitting the ball hard on a line instead of in the air. I can’t control where it goes. We as hitters can’t go up there and say, ‘I’m going to hit a home run this time; I’m going to hit a double this time; I’m going to hit the ball in the air.’ All we can do is go up there and try to hit the ball hard.

“I can’t control whether the ball goes over the fence or not,” he added. “You can’t control where it goes. You control what kind of swing you take.”

Gonzalez has said on multiple occasions that his participation in the Home Run Derby has not affected his swing. He also dismissed the idea that his right shoulder – which suffered a partial labrum tear last year, resulting first in changes to his swing last season and then in offseason surgery – is affecting his stroke.

“It’s good,” Gonzalez said of the shoulder. “As expected.”

While the first baseman has reached the 30-homer mark in each of the past four seasons, he is currently trending to come up short of that milestone for the first time since 2006. With 18 homers, he is on pace for 26 longballs.

That comes as a surprise given that, removed from the cavernous environs of PETCO Park in San Diego, Gonzalez was expected to display a longball surge. Yet Gonzalez suggests that, in part because of his new lineup, he has been liberated to focus less on elevating pitches and single-handedly producing runs and more on being a contributor to a deep, relentless lineup.

With the Padres, Gonzalez was sometimes in a position where he felt that a home run was the only way that a run could score. With the Sox, he recognizes that he can either drive in a run with a single or double, or that he can be driven in by other members of his lineup. The 30-homer plateau, he suggests, is an insignificant measure of his season.

“The only thing I take pride in is RBIs and runs scored,” said Gonzalez. “For me, the most important thing is what’s my average with runners in scoring position, and am I getting on base for the rest of the team to drive me in?

“Last year in San Diego, if sometimes you felt like you needed to hit a home run, you’d go for the home run. Here, you feel like I just need to get on base because the guys behind me are going to do more manufacturing,” he continued. “Here, you just try to be a good hitter.”

And Gonzalez has undeniably been that, whether by his own standards or anyone else’s. On the year, he has a .364 average with runners in scoring position, fourth in the AL and seventh in the majors among hitters with 100 such plate appearances. He has a .443 OBP in such situations (4th, 9th). Since his relative power drought began on July 8, he has hit .333 with a .429 OBP with runners in scoring position.

Interestingly – and indeed, rather amazingly for a hitter on a pace for 130 RBIs – Gonzalez has just two homers this year with men in scoring position. Even though he has had more at-bats with runners on base than with the bases empty, only five of his 18 homers have come with men on base.

Meanwhile, when the bases are empty, Gonzalez’ average is lower (.321), but his power has gone up (13 homers, .575 slugging mark). That lends credence to the idea that when runners are on base, he either has been comfortable making solid contact and looking to advance or score the runner, or perhaps that opposing pitchers have approached him differently in such situations.

Regardless of the cause, the effect has been interesting. In some respects, Gonzalez’ performance has been discounted in recent weeks in the absence of power. Increasingly, the MVP drumbeat – which echoed methodically for Gonzalez as the Red Sox’ clear-cut candidate in the first half – has started sounding for teammates such as Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury in recent weeks.

Yet the fact that Gonzalez has not been hitting for power in recent weeks has made him no less valuable in the eyes of many of his teammates. If this stretch for Gonzalez is not precisely what was expected, the Sox will still happily take it.

“I think we’re kind of overlooking the MVP on our team. We have a guy hitting .350-something with 90 RBIs,” said teammate Kevin Youkilis. “I think Adrian’s been the most consistent guy on our team the whole year. Sometimes, when you’re consistent, you’re overshadowed, and when guys get hot, the light shines on them a little more. But Adrian’s been the most consistent guy on our team. To lead the league in hitting and RBIs, you don’t see that much. You get two-thirds of the Triple Crown, that’s pretty impressive.”