Flash forward to the end of the day.

A quiet clubhouse, with Red Sox players hurriedly exiting, hoping to start the process of putting their 2-1 loss to the Orioles in the rear-view mirror. And Adrian Gonzalez was no different, although for the first baseman, there was a least a bit of the day he didn't want to leave behind.

A seventh-inning, leadoff, line-drive single to left-center field. 

For Gonzalez and the Red Sox, in the long run this was a moment that offered the kind of hope that would only be topped by a final score in his team's favor. It was a step toward one of the team's most important hitters starting to solve a most important -- and perplexing -- riddle. 

"That was an at-bat as a whole where I went out and looked for a specific pitch, and even though I got it a pitch or two before and fouled that off, I got it again and put the swing I wanted on it," he explained. "I felt like I had a good day."

Gonzalez having more good days is of the most utmost importance to these Red Sox. That's why such seemingly minute moments as a late-inning opposite field single, along with each of the other 14 pitches he saw against Orioles' lefty starter Wei-Yen Chen, are being dissected by his manager, his hitting coach, the Red Sox fans and the lefty hitter, himself.

It's why the day began like it did.

"His pitch selection," said Bobby Valentine when asked about the cause for Gonzalez' lack of power during the Red Sox' manager's weekly appearance on The Big Show Wednesday. "He also hasn't walked. I think, with guys who have hit the ball over the fence in the past, there is usually a correlation between a swing and a miss at a certain pitch or swing too often at pitches that you shouldn't be swinging at. And I think that there's something going on with Adrian, I haven't seen him the past, I'm learning about him, but his lack of selectiveness at the plate is the reason we haven't seen the power. … I don't think Adrian has really given himself an opportunity at the plate."

Gonzalez hasn't been the hitter the Red Sox signed on for, as was evidenced Wednesday by both the acceptance of hitting the slugger sixth, and pinch-running for him in that seventh inning even though the likelihood was there would be another at-bat waiting a few hitters later. (His replacement, Scott Posednik, would ground out with the potential game-tying run at second base to end the eighth inning.)

The cause for the dip?

Before uncovering answers, it's important to drive home why rediscovering Gonzalez is so important. As Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz said after the loss, "He's the one guy they're going to build the team around at some point, so having him do his thing is important."

Ortiz saw the importance of the dynamic a year ago. On June 7, 2011, Gonzalez and the Sox' DH had rekindled memories of the Ortiz/Manny Ramirez dynamic in the middle of the Red Sox' batting order, with Ortiz carrying the majors' fifth-best OPS, and Adrian Gonzalez right behind him at No. 8 (along with the big league's second-best batting average). The result was the best offense in the bigs, with the Red Sox sitting as a first-place team.

:"It takes a lot of pressure off a lot of guys," said Ortiz of the dynamic of such a one-two punch. "They'll focus a lot on the big dogs."

Now? The Red Sox carry the second-least productive No. 3 spot in the American League.

So the question comes back to this: Why is this happening to Gonzalez and how can it be fixed? Valentine offered a Cliff Notes version of the answer.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Gonzalez' existence of late isn't possessing just four home runs on a date he had 12 at a year ago. It's that the player who had 119 walks in 2009, 93 in '11 and 74 a year ago, to go along with a .372 career on-base percentage, hasn't walked since May 15. It's a span of 20 games in which his on-base percentage (.229) is just slightly better than his batting average (.222).

The lack of free passes offers perhaps the best key when when trying to unlock the answers Gonzalez and the Red Sox are looking for.

"I think what happens to hitters is that there is a certain amount of impatience," said Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan. "I think it's a combination of that, and what he's experiencing mechanically. He doesn't feel good at the plate. He's trying a lot of different things, whether it's a tap, feet close to together, spread out, far apart. When you're doing those things you tend to lose your strike zone because you're worrying about yourself instead of focusing on the pitcher, the release point and getting a pitch to hit. In other words, instead of 100 percent of the focus being on the baseball, it's 70-30, or 60-40, and when you do that you tend to not swing at strikes, and that's kind of what he's going through right now. He's swinging at a lot of balls out of the zone, a lot of pitches in and up, which when he doesn't do."

The numbers don't lie.

According to BaseballAnalytics.org, Gonzalez has swing at the fourth most pitches in the majors, while offering the fifth-most pitches out of the strike zone. Since May 16 he has taken 128 pitches, or 41 less than over the same three-week span a season ago. Also, from May 16-June 6 last year the percentage of pitches Gonzalez chased was 31, compared the 39 percent clip he has possessed over the past 21 days.

"I've seen (such a slump from Gonzalez) in spurts, but never for as long as he's going through it," said Magadan, who was also with the All-Star in San Diego. "He hasn't walked since the middle of May. We're in the second week of June and he hasn't had a base on balls for quite a while, which is a little strange for a guy hitting in the middle of the order and is as good a hitter as Adrian is. It's a combination of a lot of things. Once he gets a good comfort level of what he's doing at the plate the plate discipline will creep back in the game."

And perhaps that creeping began Wednesday. 

Using the Pitch FX system, of the 15 pitches Gonzalez saw Wednesday, there was just one (a low curveball from Chen that resulted in a line-drive to first baseman Mark Reynolds) that he offered which was out of the strike zone. The rest of his nine swings were at pitches in the zone, including the four he put during his final at-bat.

"I'm not controlling the strike zone the way I want to, putting myself behind in the count at times," he said. "Overall I've had some good swings, just nothing to show for it. When you miss your pitch at this level, you're not going to get too many more."

The Red Sox are 53-28 over the past two seasons when Gonzalez gets two more more hits. That's no coincidence. 

The old Adrian needs to start making an appearance. Fortunately for the Sox, he he might have started his re-introduction just after 9 p.m. during the team's latest loss.