Francona: Olerud starting

During his weekly interview with Boston sports radio station WEEI, Red Sox manager Terry Francona today said he would start left-handed hitting John Olerud against the southpaw Mark Buehrle in tonight’s Game 2 of the ALDS. He also said he was confident enough in Matt Clement to start him again if the series gets to a Game 5.

“Olerud will play first base tonight,” said Francona. “Neither one of them (Olerud or Kevin Millar) have had a lot of success against Buehrle. But in this instance because of that, we’ll go with the defense as the overriding factor, and there’s some other things that we spend a lot of time trying to figure out that I don’t need to go over with you guys … yeah, we’ll start Olerud tonight.”

Francona said there would be four lefthanded batters in tonight’s lineup, presumably Olerud, Johnny Damon, David Ortiz, and Trot Nixon. Switch hitters Bill Mueller and Jason Varitek will be batting from the right side.

When asked if in the event of a Game 5 he would be confident in giving Clement another start, Francona replied: “Oh of course. Of course. Look, in getting to Game 5, there might be a lot of twists and turns depending on how the series goes. I have confidence in our players and I would be a bad manager if I didn’t. And I refuse to not have confidence in our players. When everybody else is ready to jump off … I don’t feel like that.”

—

Eric Wilbur has tonight’s Red Sox lineup:

1. Johnny Damon, CF
2. Edgar Renteria, SS
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Jason Varitek, C
6. Trot Nixon, RF
7. Bill Mueller, 3B
8. John Olerud, 1B
9. Tony Graffanino, 2B

Starting pitcher: David Wells

White Sox starting lineup:

1. Scott Podsednik, LF
2. Tadahito Iguchi, 2B
3. Jermaine Dye, RF
4. Paul Konerko, 1B
5. Carl Everett, DH
6. Aaron Rowand, CF
7. AJ Pierzynski, C
8. Joe Crede, 3B
9. Juan Uribe, SS

Starting pitcher: Mark Buehrle