After a solid debut against the Twins last week allowing 1 run in 2 innings, Josh Beckett will return to the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon looking to improve. Starting for St. Louis will be former NL Cy Young award winner Chris Carpenter and the Red Sox will, for the first time, see their former farm-hand and knuckle-baller Charlie Zink in a Cardinals uniform. It will be interesting to see how the Sox hitters adjust to facing a knuckle-baller.
The Red Sox will send out the back-end of their bullpen following Beckett, with Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima slated to pitch. The Red Sox starting lineup consists of 7 of the probable 9 starters going into the 2010 regular season, with the two exceptions being LF Bill Hall (instead of Jacoby Ellsbury) and 3B Angel Sanchez (instead of Adrian Beltre).
As has been the trend this Spring, the Red Sox management has kept SS Marco Scutaro and 2B Dustin Pedroia together in the starting lineup to continue to build chemistry and improve their double-play effectiveness. Thus far, it appears as if Scutaro and Pedroia have been working well together to plug the middle-infield gap, which is a great sign for the defensive success of the Red Sox infield.
Today’s Lineup – 1:05pm at City of Palms Park (lineups courtesy of Boston.com and ESPN.com)
Red Sox
Scutaro, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Martinez, C
Youkilis, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Drew, RF
Cameron, CF
Hall, LF
Sanchez, 3B
Pitching: RHP Josh Beckett followed by RHP Jonathan Papelbon, LHP Hideki Okajima, LHP Dustin Richardson, RHP Ramon Ramirez, RHP Manny Delcarmen.
Cardinals
Schumaker 2B
Lopez DH
Molina C
Rasmus CF
Freese 3B
Jay LF
Mather 1B
Henley RF
Greene SS
Pitching: RHP Chris Carpenter followed by RHP Pete Parise, RHP Jason Motte, LHP Trever Miller, RHP Charlie Zink.
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