ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Adrian Gonzalez understands the deal. He isn't hitting home runs, and people are wondering why.

"I'm considered a power hitter," Gonzalez told WEEI.com prior to the Red Sox' workout Thursday at Tropicana Field. "That's my job. Driving in runs is my No. 1 job, but I'm still considered a middle-of-the-order guy who is going to hit for power. The more I would try and find it, the worse it gets."

He's tried a heavier bat. He's tried a lighter bat. He's tried different stances. He's tried different approaches.

The drought has been as baffling to Gonzalez as well, especially considering the source of his power outage in the second of last season -- a worn-down shoulder -- isn't the problem this time around. ("My shoulder feels as good as it has since 2009. I'm healthy. My shoulder feels good," he explained.)

Since the well-publicized All-Star Home Run Derby participation last season, Gonzalez has played in 156 games, hitting 16 home runs while totaling a .298 batting average and .811 OPS. In 2012 he has six homers with a .283 average and .745 OPS.

Heading into the second half, however, Gonzalez feels like he finally might have found something. As he explained, "It wasn't driving the ball, but it was making better contact."

Prior to leaving Sunday's game due to illness, the first baseman carried an 18-game hit streak, during which there was just one home run but also a .377 batting average and .881 OPS. Still, at the outset it was a stretch that wasn't shaking the criticism, with just two of the first 22 hits going for extra bases.

"It's not in my mind. I just know it's what people talk about," Gonzalez said. "People call me and tell me what they're talking about because I don't look at that stuff. I can't get caught up in that. There is always going to be a negative to the good things that are going on. When I'm hitting good for average, it's like, 'He's not hitting home runs.' If I'm hitting home runs and I'm not hitting for average, well, then, 'He's not hitting for average.' You can't satisfy everybody, and that's why you can't try to."

But it might have been all those singles that signified the start of something for the lefty hitter.

After all the aforementioned alterations, Gonzalez simplified things with those base hits.

"There are tweaks you try for a day or two that afterwards you're like, 'That's not going to work,' " he said. "There are things you do -- go to a tap, go to a leg kick, put your hands a little bit higher, put your hands a little bit lower, do this, do that. All those tweaks and this and that that I was trying, it might have felt good for a day and then it just went away and didn't feel right. it might have felt good in BP, but once the game started it didn't feel great. It's one of those things I wish I would have the power numbers to show for it up until this point. I got to the point where I have to just focus on singles and getting on base, and when the power numbers come, they come.

"My focus is working right now. I don't need any other outside chatter telling me, 'Try and drive the ball.' What I'm doing is working. I don't want to be at the plate thinking, 'I've got two singles, well, let me try and drive it,' and all of a sudden pull off the ball. I don't need that.

"There are going to be that group of people that are going to come in and say, 'Where are the home runs?' This game isn't easy. You get into these funks and it's hard to get out of them. Eventually I'll get out of it, but right now I just have to do what I can to help the team win because the only thing that's on our mind right now is making a playoff push."

While the singles started flooding in, along came a smattering of more authoritative strokes. The ball still wasn't going out of the park, but Gonzalez seemingly had uncovered something that might lead to the long ball (and had been missing for much of the season) -- confidence.

"As the hitting streak went on I tried to just focus more and more on singles up the middle. Having that mentality of, 'I'm going to forget driving the ball, because that hasn't worked out.' Trying to find that feeling of driving the ball hasn't worked because I just keep getting myself into bad habits and bad habits," he explained. "The more I focus on just getting singles up the middle the better I feel. So my focus just kept going single up the middle, single up the middle, single up the middle, and that would into an occasional pitch I would hit with more authority. But I was just trying to get that single up the middle."

The mindset truly took root on the West Coast, with Gonzalez having accumulated a .417 batting average and .917 OPS in the past two weeks. More specifically, the games in Oakland brought the 30-year-old a feeling he hadn't had since the first half of the 2011 season.

Gonzalez understands there is still something missing, but the feeling he has heading into the second half is dramatically different than what he has endured the majority of '12.

"My optimism will start when I have that feeling," he said. "If I get the point where I get that feeling, and I can carry that for a good month stretch instead of just one or two days … the feeling I had going into the break, where I knew going into every game I was going to get a hit, and more than likely get a second or third hit no matter who was pitching, and no matter what they threw at me. But that feeling hasn't been there a lot. I've been going into games thinking, 'I hope I find that feeling that will carry me into tomorrow.' "

All of the alterations to his equipment, batting stance and mindset would seem to be an exhausting progression while trying to get through the season's first three months. Perhaps. But there is a reason Gonzalez has been able to live through the uncharacteristic first half carrying enough perspective that he could start finding a silver lining.

"The one thing is not exhausting is I know at the end of the day I'm trying my hardest every single day," he said. "I'm trying something to be successful. That's why when I make an out I'm never disappointed in myself because I gave it all I had. If I didn't give all I had I should be pissed at myself. I'm giving every single ounce of me."