The designated hitter dance continues for the Red Sox, as David Ortiz is back in the lineup Friday night against Yankees right-hander Phil Hughes.
Ortiz and Lowell split starts in the four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim, with Ortiz having wildly different nights.
In a 5-1 win on Tuesday night, Ortiz was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts and hit into two double plays. The next night, he slugged his third home run of the month of May and also had a single and a walk.
Ortiz is 2-for-2 with two doubles against Hughes.
Elsewhere in a rather interesting lineup, we see J.D. Drew in the third spot, where he has hit just once all season, slugging a solo homer and a single in four at bats.
Jason Varitek, who has been paired with Josh Beckett in all but one of the right-hander's starts, is behind the plate and will bat eighth. While it is not a surprise to those two matched up again, manager Terry Francona also said that since Victor Martinez has hit lefties but struggled against righties, it was a good time to give him a much-needed day off and then get him back out there Saturday against southpaw CC Sabathia.
Martinez is hitting .429 (12-for-28) against left-handers, and just .187 (14-for-75) against righties.
Here are the complete lineups:
Red Sox
Marco Scutaro, SS
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
J.D. Drew, RF
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
David Ortiz, DH
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Jeremy Hermida, LF
Jason Varitek, C
Darnell McDonald, CF
Yankees
Derek Jeter, SS
Nick Johnson, DH
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Alex Rodriguez, 3B
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nick Swisher, RF
Brett Gardner, CF
Francisco Cervelli, C
Randy Winn, LF
