Red Sox Need Someone Other Than Jacoby Ellsbury to Step Up in Series Finale With Rays

Editor's note: The temperature gauge is a Bill James-created statistic that measures how hot or cold hitters are. We will spotlight Red Sox and opposing team temperatures on game days.

Jacoby Ellsbury is red-hot at the plate right now, but he won't be in the Red Sox lineup on Thursday night when they close out their series with the Rays.

Ellsbury has been heating up as of late, and he only built on that hot stretch on Wednesday night in a loss to Tampa Bay.

Ellsbury collected three more hits on Thursday night, and he's now hitting .435 in his last six games. He's added in four walks over that time to give him a .519 on-base percentage since Sept. 14.

However, the Boston center fielder won't be in the lineup on Thursday night.

Here are the temperatures for the Red Sox and Rays for Sept. 20.

Red Sox
Jacoby Ellsbury, 99
Mauro Gomez, 74
Ryan Kalish, 73
Pedro Ciriaco, 69
Guillermo Quiroz, 68
James Loney, 66
Mike Aviles, 65
Dustin Pedroia, 62
Daniel Nava, 62
Ryan Lavarnway, 57
Cody Ross, 55
Jose Iglesias, 54
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 54
Ivan De Jesus, 52
Scott Podsednik, 48

Rays
Carlos Pena, 84
Jeff Keppinger, 80
Ben Zobrist, 76
Stephen Vogt, 71
Evan Longoria, 70
Jose Lobaton, 70
Luke Scott, 70
Reid Brignac, 70
Jose Molina, 69
Sean Rodriguez, 68
Rich Thompson, 67
Chris Gimenez, 66
B.J. Upton, 66
Desmond Jennings, 66
Ben Francisco, 65
Matt Joyce, 64
Elliot Johnson, 63
Sam Fuld, 59
Ryan Roberts, 54