Ortiz out, Casey in

Sean Casey is now listed as tonight's (hypothetical) first baseman, and David Ortiz will get the night off. But then again, there's a man with a long beard in centerfield rounding up two of every beast he can find. They could pencil in Carlos Quintana for first base and it would carry about as much relevance.

The new (hypothetical) Sox lineup:
1. Ellsbury, CF
2. Lowrie, SS
3. Lowell, DH
4. Youkilis, 3B
5. Kotsay, RF
6. Bay, LF
7. Casey, 1B
8. Cash, C
9. Velazquez, 2B

Before the change, Terry Francona intimated that Lowell DHing and Youkilis playing third was a positive, because it gives Ortiz a few innings at first base and therefore some recent experience should the Sox make the World Series and play in a National League park. Francona was asked if he was concerned at all about Ortiz playing on a sloppy field:

"Well, what would that be telling the other guys?" Francona said. "We can't play David but we could play you? That's kind of terrible. The field has been covered all day. If we ever felt like that, we wouldn't play him. If anything, the field gets harder on days like this, because it's covered all day."

Also, we're expecting an announcement in about 10 minutes about the game.