BOSTON — The Red Sox are taking it easy with Andrew Benintendi.
The left fielder looked good in his return Thursday from three weeks on the disabled list with a sprained left knee, going 1-for-3 with a double. But Chris Young will start in left and bat seventh Friday against the New York Yankees, as manager John Farrell said the Red Sox don’t want to push Benintendi.
“He’ll be in the lineup again (Saturday),” Farrell said of Benintendi. “Three weeks down, (Friday night) with (Yankees starter Luis) Cessa, reverse splits with some right-handers a little bit better performance. He’s got a great arm. He’s going to throw good stuff at us. But he’s handled lefties a little bit more regularly, and given the amount of time down, felt like we were going to ease Andrew back into this. But I thought it was pretty impressive (Thursday) night, still the bat-to-ball ability after three weeks of not having any real competition, so that’s where we are with the lineup.”
Clay Buchholz will start for Boston, but he’s coming off a rough outing against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 11, during which he gave up six runs and two homers over just three innings of work. Still, the right-hander has had more good spot starts than bad ones since returning to the rotation.
Here are the lineups for Friday’s game at Fenway Park.
RED SOX (82-64)
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
David Ortiz, DH
Mookie Betts, RF
Hanley Ramirez, 1B
Travis Shaw, 3B
Chris Young, LF
Sandy Leon, C
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
Clay Buchholz, RHP (6-10, 5.31 ERA)
YANKEES (77-69)
Brett Gardner, LF
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Gary Sanchez, C
Starlin Castro, 2B
Didi Gregorius, SS
Chase Headley, 3B
Brian McCann, DH
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Mason Williams, RF
Luis Cessa, RHP (4-1, 4.34 ERA)
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
