Now, finally, the Red Sox are seeing the real Adrian Gonzalez.

Or are they?

On Sunday, in a rare Red Sox romp to a 14-1 victory in Cleveland, the first baseman continued a torrid stretch that is now more than seven weeks in duration. Gonzalez mashed a two-run homer to right, slammed a two-run double to center and drew a walk en route to a 2-for-3 day.

The performance sustained the drumbeat of an outrageously productive stretch. In his last 44 games dating to June 23, Gonzalez is hitting .393 with a .423 on-base percentage, .613 slugging mark and 1.036 OPS with eight homers and 44 RBIs. It is the sort of production about which the Sox daydreamed for all of those years when they imagined what their lineup might one day look like with Gonzalez in it. In the process, Gonzalez has elevated his numbers from a considerable disappointment (at the start of the stretch, he was hitting .256/.313/.392/.704) to more familiar territory (.309/.354/.478/.831).

That said, there is one departure from the pre-2012 Gonzalez that both helps to explain the hot streak while also serving as a marker of what the slugger changed in order to get hot. In this 44-game hot streak, Gonzalez now has just seven walks.

It’s a somewhat startling development for a player who, from 2009-11, ranked sixth in the majors with a .403 OBP and third with 286 walks (an average of 95 per season). So, what gives?

Gonzalez, long known as one of the most cerebral hitters in the game and as someone who immerses himself as deeply in the cat-and-mouse game of batter vs. pitcher as anyone in baseball, suggests that he reached a point in his struggles where he had to simplify his approach.

He wasn’t able to execute a game plan in which he looked for specific pitches in specific counts. Instead, he went for a far simpler see-ball/hit-ball approach that coincided roughly with the start of his hot streak.

“My swing hasn't been exactly what I wanted it to be, so now I'm just, 'Hit it,’ ” Gonzalez explained recently. “This year, my swing's been so out of whack that I just couldn't [be a cerebral hitter]. I started the season doing that, doing what I'd been doing my whole career. Every time I would look for a pitch or look for a zone and a pitch and get it, I would miss it. After that, you don't know what's next.

“You usually put yourself in a position where, you look for a pitch in a zone and you get it, you hit it hard. When you're missing it or fouling it off over the course of a month or two months, you get frustrated, so I just became a 'look fastball and react' guy.”

And that, in turn, helps to explain why Gonzalez -- typically one of the most patient hitters in the game -- has been anything but that this year. He’s seeing a career-low 3.67 pitches per plate appearance while jumping on early-count fastballs. As a result, he’s not walking with his characteristic frequency.

“I've been more aggressive because of that [approach]. My walks are down because of that,” Gonzalez said. “When you're looking for a pitch, you take more pitches. You're waiting the pitcher out until he gives you that pitch. But when you're up there saying I'm going to hit a fastball in the zone, it might be the first pitch, I'm going after it. You're not up there waiting the pitcher out. You're waiting for him to give you something so you can attack it.”

Though that approach is a foreign one to Gonzalez, it’s nonetheless been effective. And so, the four-time All-Star is willing to take a pragmatic approach to his craft.

“Look at the results,” he said. “The best offensive approach is the one that's working at the time. You can't be like, 'This is the one, this is the one.' Whatever's working at the time, you've got to go with it.”

The fact that Gonzalez has been productive since late June represents a significant development not just for the player but for the Sox. During his struggles through the first half of the season, there was a mix of confusion and disbelief around the Red Sox.

Those with the club insisted that Gonzalez’s track record was too impressive to think that he might have suddenly lost his way. Still, the fact that his struggles lasted as long as they did seemed like a siren in the distance given that Gonzalez is signed through 2018 as the anchor of the Red Sox’ offense.

Now, that notion once again represents a source of security and stability going forward, rather than a source for concern. Gonzalez took the long, hard road back toward his career norms, but the fact that he is now approaching them represents a considerable source of reassurance for a Red Sox team that has had few of those in recent weeks.