JUPITER, Fla. -- One day, Jason Bay was suiting up for a franchise drawing 20,000 fans a night and on its way to its 16th straight losing season. The next, he was playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Fenway Park, drawing a standing ovation from the Boston faithful after scoring the winning run, as the Red Sox were on their way to their fifth postseason berth in the past six years.

For Bay, who was traded from the Pirates to the Red Sox in the three-team deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers on July 31, it was perhaps the most abrupt transition of his life.

Now, with a full Spring Training with the Red Sox -- minus his short stint with Canada at the World Baseball Classic -- the 30-year-old left fielder finally feels like he's getting acclimated.

"It's nice to kind of come in already and kind of understand how things work," said Bay, who spent four full seasons in Pittsburgh. "Usually when you come to Spring Training, you've got that new guy in your lineup. But I've already got that unfamiliarity out of the way, so now it's just about going out and playing baseball."

In 49 games down the stretch with the Red Sox, Bay hit .293 with nine home runs and 37 RBIs. Then, even though he had never played a postseason game in his career before 2008, the native Canadian hit .341 with three homers and nine RBIs in 11 playoff games.

Considering every game he played in August and September had an October atmosphere, Bay said he was well prepared once the playoffs came around.

"I got there in August, and I felt like I was in the playoffs," Bay said. "It was like, 'I've never been to the playoffs, and this is what it feels like.' They got to the playoffs, and I ramped it up another level, but I didn't go from zero-to-60. I felt like those two months before the playoffs was kind of like a buildup to the playoffs.

"If I would've been in Pittsburgh, and I got traded the day before the playoffs started, I think it would've been extremely overwhelming."

Not much is overwhelming to Bay now.

He's experienced Red Sox Nation, went through two heated postseason series, is getting a feel for what Red Sox Spring Training is all about and also played in front of 40,000-plus at Rogers Centre in Toronto during the Classic.

Although Bay is more comfortable, Boston manager Terry Francona said he isn't expecting anything more out of his left fielder this season. What he's been throughout his career is enough.

"We just want him to be himself; that's all we've ever asked of him from the day he got over here," Francona said. "He did a terrific job of that. He blended in, he's a terrific teammate, he plays the game. He doesn't need to all of a sudden try to be somebody he's not.

"Just go out there and play every day -- that's one of his strengths. If he just has the numbers that he's had over the last four or five years, that's fine."

Bay, who entered Saturday's game against the Marlins batting .294 (5-for-17) in seven Spring Training games, said everything that comes with putting on a Red Sox uniform seems rather ordinary.

If that's truly the case, he's got the rush of last year's stretch run to thank.

"Now it's normal, you know?" Bay said. "I don't know if it was too much [last year]. It was just that I didn't know any better. So I was just thinking, 'All right, what do I do here? What do I do here?' Just trying to figure out the routine and how the routines work.

"It's not ideal, but I think that's probably the best way to go about it -- just to get thrown right in it."