They'll be able to keep close eye on Lester

MINNEAPOLIS -- Just because Jon Lester will be haunting the same clubhouse as his former (and future) teammates does not mean Lester's status on the active roster is going to be solidified this weekend. Instead, his presence -- which was expected here today -- will give him a chance to work out the medical kinks with the major league training staff, plus his manager and pitching coach to be.

"The more we talked about it, we thought it made sense to let him come with us," manager Terry Francona said yesterday. "Rather than put a firm date on, 'OK, here's when he's going to go pitch,' we're going to evaluate him every day. Let him start out by playing catch like he's supposed to, then long toss, then a side day.

"It's not like we changed our mind and something's wrong, just the more we thought about it, having him here made sense."

No matter what Lester shows the staff, Francona expects him to be sent to Triple A Pawtucket for some work before finally rejoining the Sox.

Lester remains on the 15-day disabled list, with the club not forced to make a move because of the cramping he suffered in his arm in his last rehab start, a three-inning outing Wednesday in Pawtucket. The lefthander will not throw this weekend.

The manpower shortage of the bullpen Thursday night got lost in the impressive performances of Kyle Snyder, Brendan Donnelly, and J.C. Romero in relief of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima, as well as Mike Timlin (disabled list) and Devern Hansack (his replacement), were unavailable.

But lest the questions grow too loud about Papelbon, Francona wanted to make it clear that his closer is not injured.

"There were no red flags," Francona said. "He was actually tremendous. Pitching him all year we want the dominant guy, even though it's not easy not to pitch him. I think sometimes there's a need to let guys [recuperate] and do their thing. Again, just because he could pitch doesn't mean he should pitch."

Francona said not using Papelbon was a decision he made on his own. He also addressed questions about whether Papelbon's velocity was down during his 35-pitch blown save Tuesday.

"A little low," Francona said. "Some of that's mechanical. Some of that could be that's the first time he's gone that far. You know, you put yourself in his shoes, he gave up a home run . . . now he's got to reload. They've got him in a bind, he's trying to get a ground ball. There are some different reasons."

Papelbon worked a 1-2-3 ninth in last night's 2-0 win over the Twins, earning his ninth save of the season.

When Curt Schilling appeared with Johan Santana yesterday afternoon for the SHADE Foundation, which promotes skin cancer awareness, Schilling said it was the first time he'd met the 28-year-old Venezuelan lefthander, who has been a unanimous winner of the American League Cy Young Award two of the last three years.

That was a bit startling, given the number of times they've seen each other in spring training -- both the Sox and Twins train in Fort Myers, Fla. -- and regular-season meetings. Schilling's wife, Shonda, a melanoma survivor and SHADE founder, had read of how the wife of Santana's agent had died of melanoma and urged her husband to reach out to Santana, who agreed to promote a SHADE poster contest in Minnesota.

"It's an honor right now for me to be with him and hopefully have a great relationship with him from now on," Santana said.

Schilling has always raved about Santana as a pitcher.

"Right now, I look at Johan the way I looked at RJ [Randy Johnson] a couple of years ago," Schilling said. "There's that guy -- him being that guy -- and then there's the rest of the league. He's one of the few guys in the league who when he gets the ball -- except for tomorrow [Santana faces Julian Tavarez tonight] -- and they don't win, it's a shock. You always enjoy competing against guys when you beat them, you've done something. He has tremendous respect for the game and the respect is a little more significant for me because he's not from this country and he's overcome a lot to be who he is. To sit up here to speak a language that is not his native tongue is a huge step for anybody. But to do it on a national stage, and have as much class and respect for the game as he has, is something I enjoy watching and am proud to compete against."

As expected, Jacoby Ellsbury was promoted from Double A Portland to Triple A Pawtucket yesterday. Ellsbury played in 17 games with the Sea Dogs, hitting .452, the best average in the minor leagues, with 33 hits, including 10 doubles. He reached base safely in 61 of 66 games with Portland, including last season, after moving up from Single A Wilmington July 13. Batting leadoff and playing center field last night, Ellsbury went 1 for 4 with two walks and two runs. "We felt in the offseason the best place for Jacoby to continue to [work] on some of the finer points of his game, true leadoff ability, continuing to master the art of stealing a base, etc. We felt the best place to do this and have the ability to have success was in Portland," director of player development Mike Hazen wrote in an e-mail. "There was certainly a goal of having him in Pawtucket at some point, although no time frame was established. He made the decision for us that the best place for him to continue to develop these parts of his game and still have the ability to have success would be in Pawtucket." . . . Hansack was sleeping after throwing a side session Thursday when he got the call up to the big club. He then called a friend to drive him to Boston to make it in time for the team charter here. "The team's doing good," said Hansack. "Keep it going, that's my aim. Keep it rolling." Francona said it was unlikely he would use Hansack in the middle of innings early on, preferring for him to start innings. "I know we won't be afraid to use him," the manager said . . . . . . Last night's win marked the first for the Sox at the Metrodome since Aug. 7, 2005 . . . Alex Cora hit his third triple of the season, and had his first three-hit game since Aug. 18. With that, he raised his average to a magic number for Red Sox fans, .406.

Gordon Edes of the Globe staff contributed to this report; Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.