John Farrell did some lineup tinkering during the Red Sox’ sweep of the Twins over the weekend, but it will be the usual starting nine that take the field when Boston opens a three-game set against the White Sox on Monday.
Stephen Drew makes his return to the starting lineup after an awkward slide into second base Friday night forced him to miss the final two games of the Minnesota series. The shortstop seems to have finally snapped out of the funk that followed him early on, and he has become a solid producer near the bottom of the order. Drew has hit safely in four of his last five games and totaled four extra-base hits over that span, including a grand slam last Wednesday in Tampa Bay.
While Drew returns to the bottom third of the order (batting eighth on Monday), Jacoby Ellsbury returns to the top after getting his first day off of the season in Sunday’s rain-soaked win over the Twins. Ellsbury has performed well on the basepaths — he’s tied for third in the majors with 13 steals this season — but he has struggled to get on base consistently from the leadoff slot. His .309 on-base percentage ranks second-to-last among Monday night’s starters for Boston.
Check out the full lineups for both teams below.
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
Jon Lester, LHP
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
Dylan Axelrod, RHP
