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The Red Sox are back to full strength Monday night as they start their series against the Chicago White Sox with Jon Lester on the mound.
Boston Red Sox (27-17)
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Shane Victorino, RF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Mike Napoli, 1B
- Daniel Nava, LF
- Will Middlebrooks, 3B
- Stephen Drew, SS
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Starting Pitcher -- Jon Lester
Chicago White Sox (19-23)
- Alejandro de Aza, CF
- Alexei Ramirez, SS
- Alex Rios, RF
- Paul Konerko, 1B
- Adam Dunn, DH
- Dayan Viciedo, LF
- Jeff Keppinger, 3B
- Tyler Flowers, C
- Tyler Greene, 2B
Starting Pitcher -- Dylan Axelrod
It's the first time we've seen the full lineup in a bit, and it's interesting to see that it's shaken out with Jarrod Saltalamacchia hitting last. Even Salty's biggest critics will acknowledge that he's much preferred to Pedro Ciriaco. The shortstop went 0-for-9 in his two starts for Drew, amazingly seeing all of 18 pitches in the process.
The Red Sox should feel pretty comfortable facing Axelrod, given that he very much fits the same mold as most of the arms on the Twins' pitching staff the Sox just faced. That's not to say Axelrod is a pushover. He's been more successful than the likes of Pedro Hernandez, less succesfull than Kevin Correia. But on the whole the Sox haven't been doing a good job of hitting the ball hard when they put the ball in play, and Axelrod should let them do that often enough. His night will likely come down to whether they can keep that up, and whether or not their defense can back him up.