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Matinee lineups and news
Good morning, folks. Glad to see you're spending your time goofing off at the office with Extra Bases. We'll be sure to provide you all the Sox news and notes you need, and we promise not to tell your boss. We'll start with this afternoon's lineups (it's a 1:05 p.m. start for the Devil Rays series finale), and some pregame thoughts from Terry Francona.
Boston:
1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Coco Crisp, CF
9. Julio Lugo, SS
SP: Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP
Tampa Bay:
1. Akinori Iwamura, 3B
2. Carl Crawford, LF
3. B.J. Upton, CF
4. Carlos Pena, 1B
5. Delmon Young, DH
6. Brendan Harris, 2B
7. Jonny Gomes, RF
8. Dioner Navarro, C
9. Ben Zobrist, SS
SP: Andy Sonnanstine, RHP
No surprises to report with the lineup. A few minutes ago Francona told us that he hasn't made a decision on Friday's pitchers yet. He has said he won't use Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett on the same day, so the conventional wisdom (can you use that word when talking about sportswriters?) is that the Sox will call up Clay Buchholz for his first major league start, and make some sort of deal with Wily Mo Pena, who has cleared waivers. The other option would be Julian Tavarez, who started for most of the year and was moved to the bullpen to make way for Jon Lester's debut. Tavarez also made a fill-in start after Kason Gabbard was dealt to Texas, with Schilling still on the DL. Francona said he'd talk to GM Theo Epstein after the game, and would come to a decision this evening or tomorrow.
Speaking of pitchers, Francona spoke with Matt Clement this morning, who is getting work in down in Ft. Myers, Fla.
"It's almost like when you are thinking about becoming a good team. Getting over that last hurdle of being good is hard," Francona said. "It gets to the point where you think you're closer to getting back to pitching, and then it's a little harder to make. The steps get smaller, which I think is practical and not uncommon. But his spirits are real good. He's big into the fantasy football draft. He always runs it for us, so he wanted to get some input on that. So if he's talking about that, his spirits are real good, which is important. It's been a long haul for him."
With just two weeks left in the minor league season, it's unlikely that Clement will have time to get any rehab starts in, and he's still a ways away from pitching with the big club.
Francona was asked about the play of Kevin Youkilis, whose batting average is now .299, the first time it's been below .300 since May 6.
"He fouled off a ball last night with two strikes down the right field line, what was it, three, four inches foul? If it's fair, you're not asking me this question today," Francona said. "Instead, he's hitting .302 and you're saying '[Man], what a great hitter.' So I think perspective is big. And I think as long as he's shooting the ball to right field, I think he's always going to be fine. I think he got away from that a little bit, which hitters do. It happens."
Finally, the manager addressed Hideki Okajima's workload. Even though the reliever has been outstanding this year, the Sox have been careful not to overuse him.
"He's been so good that that's the easiest thing to do, is find an excuse to run a guy out there," Francona said of the lefthander, who has a 1.26 ERA in 57 innings this year.
"It's just trying to use common sense, which is not always easy to do in the eighth inning because of how good he is. We've tried to warm him up slow and give him as much advance notice, just because of his background and how he's done in the past. It's not always possible, but we do the best we can."
Anything else happens pregame, you'll be the first to know. Otherwise, check back for in-game updates.
