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Let's (Hopefully) Play Two!

Skies are gray here, but the Red Sox and White Sox have a lot of baseball to get in today.

Here are the lineups for the first game:

RED SOX

Julio Lugo ss
Coco Crisp cf
David Ortiz dh
Manny Ramirez lf
Mike Lowell 3b
J.D. Drew rf
Jason Varitek c
Eric Hinske lf
Alex Cora 2b

Josh Beckett p

WHITE SOX

Jerry Owens cf
Josh Fields 3b
Jim Thome dh
Paul Konerko 1b
A.J. Pierzynski c
Jermaine Dye rf
Darin Erstad lf
Juan Uribe ss
Danny Richar 4

Jon Garland p

Eric Hinske has recovered from the calf muscle cramp that forced him from Wednesday's game, as 90 minutes before gametime, appears improved, though manager Terry Francona cautioned that Hinske would have to go out and ``test'' the calf before the Sox sign off on his return.
``He'll go out and move around,'' said Francona of Hinske. ``He says he feels good, but we want to make sure he's OK. But I think it's a go.''
Spoke briefly to Dustin Pedroia, who hit in the cage this morning and reported feeling much better about his left elbow. Plans are for Pedroia to play the nightcap against lefty Jon Danks.

Reserve catcher Kevin Cash will be behind the plate with Curt Schilling in the night game. Cash has only caught Schilling in spring training and in side sessions.

Bobby Kielty has been taking some ground balls at first, and while he hasn't played there since his time with the Twins, Francona indicated he wouldn't hesitate putting him there if necessary.

Mike Lowell seems to have taken over the fifth spot in the batting order from J.D. Drew -- even against righthanders. Drew's power production has been a huge disappointment (no homers in more than two months; .391 slugging percentage) while Lowell leads the team in RBI (86).
Previously, Francona had stressed the importance of alternating left-right-left through the batting order, but with Drew's dropoff, that seems less of a priority.
``Because of production,'' Francona said, ``at some point, you have to stop being stubborn and do it.''

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 12:34 PM | Permalink