Projo Sox Blog

By STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- He's hardly your prototypical cleanup hitter.

But because of injuries and sickness, Boston manager is turning to his mighty-mite, diminutive second baseman Dustin Pedroia as his number four hitter in tonight's game against the White Sox.

Pedroia is liberally listed at 5-foot-9 in height, tipping the scales at 180 pounds. In reality he looks shorter and lighter.

Nevertheless, Pedroia has been swinging a hot bat, and a productive one, as well. Over his last 15 games, Pedroia has six doubles, four homers (including a grand slam) and 15 RBI.

So with Kevin Youkilis (sickness) unable to play yesterday, and with Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew on the disabled list, Francona tried to put together a lineup that will be balanced against any late-inning bullpen mixing and matching and lead to a win tonight.

And that led to the surpemely self-confident Pedroia, second in the league in hitting (.322), batting cleanup for the first time in his big-league career while keeping slugging designated hitter David Ortiz in the number three spot.

"I'll never hear the end of this from Pedroia and (David) Ortiz," said Francona with a wry smile. "Pedroia says this is long overdue and Ortiz says he is retiring."

 Tags  david ortiz dustin pedroia terry francona

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