Mike Cameron had ice packs wrapped around his waist and his upper thighs when he emerged from the trainers' room in the Red Sox clubhouse. Perhaps more than anyone else, he's really going to enjoy the scheduled day off on Monday.

But not only did Cameron play a third straight game for the first time since he was activated from the disabled list, but he doubled twice and scored three runs.

Even better, his double in the sixth inning plated Jason Varitek and Bill Hall with his first two RBI in a Red Sox uniform. He'd played in 15 games without driving in a run, the longest such streak for a newcomer since 1993.

The next step is for him to hit a home run, something he hasn't done since last season.

"It was good getting one of the zeroes off the board," he said with a grin. "I'm still working on the other one. I've been trying for a couple of days, and it won't get up over that wall yet. I guess it'll come in the future. I'm just trying to constantly continue to have good at-bats, and those things will come. Once that happens, I'll feel a whole lot better. It's been a long time since I hit a homer. I guess, here, it's really hard if you try to do it. That wall is very enticing."

The Red Sox don't need Cameron necessarily to hit home runs. They have David Ortiz (a team-best 11 home runs) and Kevin Youkilis (10) to do that for them.

What they really need, though, is for him to be a steady presence in center field with Jacoby Ellsbury still out indefinitely. Even that requires quite a bit of work for a 37-year-old playing through an abdominal strain that probably will require offseason surgery. He arrived at the ballpark around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday and got right out on the field to run around and loosen up and make sure he'd be good to go.

He didn't look particularly spry scoring from third on a sacrifice fly in the third inning from second on a Marco Scutaro single in the sixth. But he did what he had to do.

"Today was a big day for Cam," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "In a day game after a night game, playing a few in a row, his body bounced back real well. That was obvious with the way he swung the bat."

Cameron might not be completely healthy all season. He'll get days off here and there -- more, certainly, than he got when he was younger. But he's healthy enough to help his team win games.

"It's not all the way there," he said. "But I'm good enough to play baseball every day."