Wednesday Red Sox Lineup: Kelly Shoppach, Daniel Nava Start Against Ricky Romero

Less Brent Lillibridge, more Daniel Nava. Less Jarrod Saltalamacchia vs. lefties, more Kelly Shoppach against lefties. These are what I would call positives, and they're the primary differences between yesterday's lineup and today's.

While Saltalamacchia was of course the man who hit the game-tying homer in the seventh, it was only once he was turned around to his preferred side of the plate that he started looking comfortable. With an even tougher lefty on the mound in Ricky Romero, and given Kelly Shoppach's tendencies to destroy southpaws, it's nice to see him back in the lineup.

As for Daniel Nava, it's a simple matter of quality. Brent Lillibridge seems like a nice guy in his interviews, but right now even with his struggles against lefties Nava inspires a lot more confidence at the plate than Lillibridge, whose OPS is about thirty points below Nava's OBP.

Let that one sink in for a bit.