Off the bat, it looked like so many of others lately, and so much a representation of the reasons for the inevitability unfolding behind the scenes. It was another fly ball to right — not hit hard enough to leave, yet hit too high to land safely. Another increasingly familiar indication of the diminished bat speed and physical deterioration that made it hard for him to pull the ball authoritatively or hit for power. Another out.

But Kevin Youkilis’ time with the Red Sox was better than what it’s been lately. And so somewhere in their hardball heaven, the baseball gods — who had to love the way he’s played for the past nine seasons — decided he deserved to mark the end of his stay in Boston with something more fitting of the sum.

In the seventh inning, the ball lifted to Fenway Park’s expansive right-center field. It should’ve been a routine play for the Braves, considering the center fielder is a two-time gold-glove winner, and the right fielder scores as the National League’s best at that position this season — but, instead, there was a miscommunication between Michael Bourn and Jason Heyward.

Neither broke hard enough for the ball, so Bourn couldn’t reach it with his dive. Youkilis had a triple. And Bobby Valentine had a perfect opportunity to get the veteran his proper salute. The manager sent Nick Punto out to pinch run, and at that point everyone — Youkilis included — knew what was happening.

He hugged Punto, blew a kiss to the standing crowd, embraced a few more teammates and stepped out for a curtain call before disappearing down the steps of the home dugout for the final time, having been traded to the White Sox for ex-Fisher Cat Zach Stewart and utility man Brent Lillibridge.

It was bittersweet, though in the business of baseball, late-June goodbyes don’t get much better.

“Someone was looking down,” Valentine said, “because that’s the right way.”

He’s correct. It was the absolute right way for Youkilis to leave, on every level.

This is how it’s supposed to work, and for that, all involved parties deserve credit. Even though rookie Will Middlebrooks looked ready to take over at third from the moment he arrived, the team gave Youkilis the opportunity to regain his role. With the help of Adrian Gonzalez, they tried creative ways of finding him playing time.

They respected what Youkilis had done during a career in which he was a three-time all-star, a two-time World Series champion, and a top-six MVP candidate in consecutive seasons, whose awkward slide into third on Sunday offered one final reminder of how he’s wrung everything he could out a body not blessed with a surplus of athleticism.

But, eventually, they saw enough to determine that the team would be better with Gonzalez at first and Middlebrooks at third, and outfielders playing in the outfield, and it became obvious that the end of a nine-year run was imminent.

Even still, it all went down the way it should under ideal circumstances: A player a team drafted and developed progresses from patient hitter to power hitter to heart-of-the order presence. He gets paid handsomely, and performs mostly to the level of his contract. He eventually breaks down, as he gets old, but the team gives him a chance to prove he can still play. When he doesn’t, the organization has another, younger, star-in-the-making waiting to take over. The team moves forward, paying the player one final tribute and letting a sellout crowd send him off in celebration.

That’s the right way, indeed.

“No one has earned that more than him,” Middlebrooks told reporters afterward.

Youkilis’ intensity and focus rubbed some of his teammates wrong at points in his career, but most of the current cast spoke in chorus with Middlebrooks on Sunday. His awkward slide into third on Sunday offered one final reminder of how he’s wrung everything he could out a body not blessed with a surplus of athleticism, and fellow players appreciate that more than anybody.

Dustin Pedroia talked about how Youkilis pushed him every day to be better, and how “I want to go out and play hard just like he does.” Punto credited his decade-long friend with being the presence that attracted him to Boston as a free agent. Cody Ross, fresh off a two-homer afternoon, got a little bit emotional during NESN’s post-game interview when speaking about what Youkilis meant to the city, and how he’ll be missed.

Beyond the field, Youkilis became an adopted Bostonian who started his own foundation and was a fervent philanthropist, who was frequently seen rooting for his hometown Cincinnati Bengals at local watering holes during football season, and who’s unlikely to be invisible in the area after having married Tom Brady’s sister Julie.

But, really, Youkilis will be remembered for what he did on the field. For the three .300 seasons, for the three straight seasons with an on-base plus slugging of .950 or better, for representing the ideals of the organization’s curse-reversing decade.

“He,” General Manager Ben Cherington told reporters, “embodied a lot of things we believe in.”

He did it the right way. So it’s only appropriate that’s the way he went out.

Dave D’Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.