In the long awaited lineup move of the season Terry Francona has finally dropped David Ortiz from his customary third spot in the batting order. J.D. Drew will be replacing Ortiz in the third spot. Jeff bailey is also in the lineup tonight playing first base as Mike Lowell takes a scheduled day off and Kevin Youkilis plays third.
This is the best way to do it, as the artist formerly known as Big Papi is not forced into the dreaded lower third of the lineup, Tito gets the top four in the lineup to maintain its left-right-left-right alignment, and Drew steps back into the spot he occupied last season during his awesome month of June (.337, 12 home runs). I’m sure I’ll have more to say after game one of the great experiment, and of course I’ll enjoy watching the guy that the Sox are going to trade Buchholz Bowden and Josh Reddick for in the offseason: Joe Mauer (please).
Go Sox.
Done.
Get Out of My Ballpark 