Shift would be put on

Johnny Damon moved out of center field when Carlos Beltran was in Kansas City, and he'll do it again if the Red Sox land Beltran.

"I'm willing to move to the corners," Damon said. "For a player like that and what he would mean for our team, there's no question. Either left or right, it wouldn't matter. He's a great player and he'd make a big impact in our lineup."

General manager Theo Epstein wasn't pleased about seeing a three-team scenario reported on ESPN.com that had the Sox getting Beltran but having to give up catcher Kelly Shoppach, third baseman Kevin Youkilis, and reliever Scott Williamson.

"We don't comment on trade scenarios," Epstein said. "We prefer to keep trade talks out of the media. We just feel it works best that way."

The report indicated that the Sox were unwilling to part with that much, and Epstein, when presented with the scenario, gestured as if to indicate it was too high a price to pay.

There's no question, however, that the Sox are among the handful of teams in the hunt for Beltran, even though he could be a rent-a-player for three months unless signed to an extension before a deal is consummated. That will be tough, because Beltran's agent is Scott Boras, who hasn't been able to reach terms with the Sox on two other clients, Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek.

Bullpen door opens
The Sox did land an ex-Royal in righthanded reliever Curtis Leskanic, who signed a major league minimum deal for the rest of the season. The Sox are probably paying a prorated share of the minimum $300,000, while the Royals are on the hook for the majority of his $1.3 million salary.

Leskanic's addition meant lefthander Mark Malaska was optioned to Pawtucket.

Leskanic, 36, was 0-3 with an 8.04 ERA for the Royals, but that is deceiving, according to Royals manager Tony Pena.

"That's a great signing," said Pena. "Curt had some arm problems early in the year and I brought him along slowly because of it. Our team was going in a different direction with younger players, and we let Curt go. Last year when we were playing well, he was a big part of our bullpen. He was our set-up man and he did an unbelievable job." When Leskanic is on, said Pena, "He's very effective against lefthanded hitters."

The Sox have been looking for a bridge in the sixth inning to Mike Timlin, Williamson, and Keith Foulke and may have found it. The signing also opens the door for Epstein to trade a reliever in a package for a starting pitcher or Beltran. Leskanic certainly knows what he's getting into.

"This is fantastic," he said. "I got released last Tuesday and I've received a few bites, but when Boston called, that's the one that excited me most."

Asked how he could help the Sox, he said, "I'm the guy who can get you out of trouble in the sixth inning, get into into the seventh, and just bridge the gap a little bit to the closer."

Leskanic said he was diagnosed last January with a calcium deposit in his right shoulder, and an MRI detected a partial tear in his rotator cuff. Doctors recommended anti-inflammatory injections. Leskanic had a cortisone shot the last month of last season and finished strong, but the problem flared up early this season. After he had another shot, the problem went away.

Up and over
The three home runs the Sox hit last night gave them 43 at home, one more than they have on the road. Since 1997, the Sox have had more homers on the road (776) than at home (655) . . . Terry Francona explained his reasoning on resting stars, the timing of which has met with some criticism, most recently when Manny Ramirez was given Sunday off in San Francisco. "I try to stay ahead of them," said Francona. "I talked to Manny five days before. I need to get a sense when a guy needs a blow. When I get that sense, I try to figure out the best day. Obviously you don't want Manny taking a day off a week because he's too good. So you try to pick a day every once in a while that makes some sense. It was back-to-back days [off], which was good, and [Kevin] Millar had had better at-bats against [Jason] Schmidt than anybody. In fact, he did that day, too." . . . Bill Mueller took grounders and batting practice.