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The Red Sox may have dropped yesterday's game to the Marlins in walkoff fashion, but it seems the bats are fully back to work. Homers by Jackie Bradley Jr. (who finished the day with three hits), Mike Carp, and Will Middlebrooks powered the Boston offense to seven runs on the day, with Rubby De La Rosa's awful outing proving the only fly in the ointment.
Well, if they're hitting now they've got no excuse for stopping with today's lineup. This one runs about as deep as they get at this point in spring training.
Boston Red Sox
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Daniel Nava, RF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Mike Napoli, 1B
- Will Middlebrooks, 3B
- Ryan Sweeney, DH
- Jonny Gomes, LF
- Ryan Lavarnway, C
- Pedro Ciriaco, SS
Frankly, this is a lot better than what we saw at the end of 2012.
The most interesting positional assignment is Daniel Nava in right field. With the Red Sox at home in Fake Fenway today, it'll be a shot for Nava to show he can handle the more difficult role. If he can, it would be a significant boon to a Red Sox team trying to fill too many bench holes with too few players, but you would be right to be skeptical. While Nava took significant steps forward defensively last year, he's always going to be limited in his range.
In the lineup, Nava will serve to break up the Ellsbury - Pedroia combo at the top, which isn't something we've seen a lot of so far this spring. It seems likely that John Farrell has yet to settle on a lineup, and is still toying around with ideas. Whatever order he settles on, be comforted by the knowledge that Nick Punto will not be leading off.