Daily Red Sox Spring Training Update

Braves 4 Red Sox 3

- Dice-K pitched his first and last spring training game this year against the Braves. It was decent, as Dice-K allowed two hits and an earned run over five innings. He says he is ready to go as the #3 guy in the Red Sox rotation.

- Rocco Baldelli hit a 2 run HR, as he batted leadoff. Hopefully this will get him going as he is only hitting .194 this spring training.

- The Sox looked OK. They basically lost because they pitched a bunch of nobodies after Dice-K, so overall the Sox are looking more and more ready for the season to start. Though I would like to see a little more offense out of them.


Other Notes:

- The Sox are starting to round out their opening day roster. They appear to be leaning toward the lefthanded-hitting Chris Carter over the righthanded-hitting Jeff Bailey for the final position spot on the 25-man roster. Carter would give manager Terry Francona two lefthanded hitters (Carter, George Kottaras) to go along with two righthanded hitters (Green, Rocco Baldelli) on his bench when the season begins. Carter is batting .359 with 10 RBIs and a team-leading six home runs this spring.

- Nick Green from every report I have read will make the team until Lugo is back. He will be the utility infielder.

So if all of this information is correct, and Penny is ready to take the #5 spot in the rotation here is what the Sox roster will look like to open the season...

STARTING LINEUP
(L) Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
(R) Dustin Pedroia, 2B
(L) David Ortiz, DH
(R) Kevin Youkilis, 1B
(L) J.D. Drew, RF
(R) Jason Bay, LF
(R) Mike Lowell, 3B
(S) Jed Lowrie, SS
(S) Jason Varitek, C

BENCH
(R) Rocco Baldelli, OF
(R) Nick Green, IF-OF
(L) George Kottaras, C
(L) Chris Carter, IF-OF

STARTING ROTATION
(R) Josh Beckett
(L) Jon Lester
(R) Daisuke Matsuzaka
(R) Tim Wakefield
(R) Brad Penny

BULLPEN
(R) Jonathan Papelbon (closer)
(R) Takashi Saito
(L) Hideki Okajima
(R) Justin Masterson
(R) Manny Delcarmen
(R) Ramon Ramirez
(L) Javier Lopez

DISABLED LIST
(R) Julio Lugo, SS
(R) John Smoltz, P

The Sox play their last home spring training game today against the Rays at 1:05pm.