The first official lineups of the baseball calendar are in -- a sure sign that baseball is literally only moments away.
The Sox will play a split-squad doubleheader at City of Palms Park today. In keeping with tradition, they'll begin the spring season with two local Boston schools. They'll take on the Northeastern Huskies at 1:05pm this afternoon followed by a 6:05pm start against the Boston College Eagles.
Here are the lineups:
Vs. Northeastern (1:05pm):
Jacoby Ellsbury LF
Bil Hall 3B
Victor Martinez C
David Ortiz DH
Jed Lowrie SS
Lars Anderson 1B
Darnell McDonald RF
Che-Hsuan Lin CF
Gil Velazquez 2B
Vs. BC (6:05pm)
Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Kevin Youkilis 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jason Varitek C
Jeremy Hermida LF
Tug Hulett DH
Josh Reddick RF
Ryan Kalish CF
Expect the starters to only stick around for one or two at-bats, particularly the guys already guaranteed to be on the major league club. They'll lead the way to guys mostly wearing numbers better suited for hockey jerseys.
As will be the case for most the exhibition schedule, Francona already has the pitching mapped out for today's games.
Vs. Northeastern: Casey Kelly will pitch the first inning and Manny Delcarmen will follow him. Adam Mills, Felix Doubront, Dustin Richardson, Ramon A. Ramirez and Robert Manuel will also see some action.
Vs. BC: Boof Bonser starts, Miichael Bowden will follow. Also pitching will be Junichi Tazawa, Kyle Weiland, Kris Johnson, Fabio Castro and Randor Bierd.
In seven previous games against Northeastern, the Sox are 7-0, outscoring the Huskies 83-4. These kids are happy just to be on the same field as the Sox, squaring off against their local baseball idols. The slight embarrassment of the box score pales in comparison to the joy of having the chance to try to throw a fastball by David Ortiz.
NESN will carry the BC game this evening.
UPDATE, 1:17 p.m. : Casey Kelly has just thrown a no-hitter at City of Palms Park! Okay, well maybe it's not that exciting -- he only threw one inning. The 20-year-old prospect retired the side on 10 pitches, 7 for strikes.
UPDATE, 4:59 p.m. : Sox win this one 15-0. They are now 8-0 against Northeastern, outscoring them at a modest 98-4.
David Ortiz homered before being pinch-hit for by clubhouse staffer Ino Guerrero, who went 0-2. Welcome to spring baseball.
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