There's plenty in reserve here

TORONTO -- Chances are, Alex Cora will be back on the bench when the Red Sox open a three-game series against the Blue Jays tonight, but manager Terry Francona need only look at the bottom line for a reason to give the supersub at least one start here.

The Sox are 9-0 in games Cora has started, including Sunday's 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins in which Cora played shortstop in place of the slumping Julio Lugo, who is batting .177 (14 for 79) with just four extra-base hits in his last 20 games. With the Sox not playing yesterday, Francona took the opportunity to give Lugo a couple of days off.

Cora is batting .467 (14 for 30) in his nine starts, with six extra-base hits (2 home runs, 3 triples, 1 double), 8 RBIs, and 8 runs. Overall, he's hitting a team-high .405.

Lugo, meanwhile, has just a .302 on-base average out of the leadoff spot, the fifth lowest in the league among qualifiers.

"I think he's going through what a lot of players new to a team go through," said hitting coach Dave Magadan. "He's trying to show his new team and the fans that he's more than capable of getting the job done -- which he is -- but a lot of times you try to do it in one at-bat rather than over the course of a series, a week, a month, or a season.

"I think right now a lot of it is pitch selection, chasing pitches outside of the zone. I have all the confidence in the world he'll get the job done in the leadoff role. He's just going through a period now, he's hit some balls hard that guys have run down.

"I think he'll be fine. He's working hard, man. He's here early every day."

Baseball Encyclopedia veterans Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette have collaborated on a fabulous research tool for Sox fans, "The Ultimate Red Sox Companion," published by Maple Street Press. It has comprehensive stats on all Sox players -- year by year and career stats for every player who spent time in a Boston uniform -- but also biographies on key figures, essays on best and worst trades, best and worst free agent signings, the farm system and draft lists, the greatest games in team history, even a year-by-year history of the team's broadcasters . . . Ten Sox players have pledged to use pink Louisville Sluggers on Mother's Day (Sunday), bats that will be autographed and auctioned off to benefit breast cancer research. Last year, Major League Baseball raised $325,000 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation with this initiative . . . With five hits in his last six at-bats, second baseman Dustin Pedroia has improved his average to .239. Only three AL rookie qualifiers are batting higher than Pedroia: Devil Rays third baseman Akinori Iwamura (.339, on the DL), Devil Rays outfielder Delmon Young (.248), and Blue Jays outfielder Adam Lind (.241).

J.D. Drew's two-run double Sunday was just his fourth hit in 36 at-bats, a .111 pace. Drew missed two games last week with viral symptoms . . . The Sox have won five of six series on the road . . . Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi is under fire for his admission last week on his radio show that he lied about closer B.J. Ryan's elbow injury in spring training, saying at the time that Ryan was having back problems . . . Brendan Donnelly, on Roger Clemens coming back to the Yankees: "One of the greatest pitchers of all time, but other than that, I don't care. I met him once, at the '03 All-Star Game. He actually knew my name, so I was kind of fired up." Angels GM Bill Stoneman raised sharp objections to the signing of Clemens. "I don't think that's good for the integrity of the game," Stoneman told the Los Angeles Times. "He shouldn't be able to sit on the sidelines, watch how things are going, and decide where to go. No club should be able to benefit from that. I'm thinking about 30 clubs, not one. I just don't think it's right."