Red Sox at Mets, 6 PM

Red Sox - 000 100 110 - 3  8  0
Mets    - 000 121 00x - 4  7  1

Lester had control troubles (4-3-1-5-4, 83), but managed to Houdini his way out of trouble for the most part.

Manny Delcarmen allowed three hits, two walks and two runs in the fifth and Marcus McBeth threw 38 pitches in the sixth, walking three and allowing a run. Hideki Okajima struck out the side in the seventh and Jonathan Papelbon handled the eighth, but the Sox bats came up short.

The game was delayed by rain for 67 minutes in the top of the sixth and when things started up again, both managers went to their benches.

Chris Carter singled to start the seventh against J.J. Putz, went to third on Gil Velazquez's double and scored on Dusty Brown's groundout to score Boston's second run. In the eighth, Lars Anderson lined a single to center, took second and then third on right-side groundouts, and then scored on Angel Chavez's double down the right field line. Carter struck out to end the threat.

In the ninth, Frod had no trouble with Velazquez, Brown and Josh Reddick.

Earlier in the game, the following batters hit doubles: Pedroia in the first, Drew and Carter in the fourth, and Ellsbury in the fifth. Six of Boston's eight hits were "Baltimore dongs".

***

Amalie Benjamin has tonight's lineup, along with the news that

Kevin Youkilis began the day hitting fourth behind David Ortiz and in front of J.D. Drew, but he was scratched due to an illness. He was replaced by Chris Carter at first base.

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
J.D. Drew, RF
Jason Bay, LF
Mike Lowell, 3B
Chris Carter, 1B
Jed Lowrie, SS
Jason Varitek, C

***

Jacoby Ellsbury:

Even though we have two exhibition games, we look at [Thursday] being the last day of Spring Training. We'll be in New York and traveling. Everyone is excited to get the season going.

Dustin Pedroia:

I think everyone is ready to get out of [Florida] and start the year. We'll go play in New York, kind of get used to travel and stuff like that, and get back to Boston and start it up.

MLB.com will showcase its updated media player with a

free public beta test stream of all four games in the exhibition series that bring the first Major League Baseball action to New York's two newest architectural wonders.

Tonight

Red Sox (Lester) at Mets (Hernandez), 6 PM
Cubs (Lilly) at Yankees (Wang), 7 PM

Saturday

Cubs (Harden) at Yankees (Burnett), 1 PM
Red Sox (Matsuzaka) at Mets (Perez), 1 PM

I remember a previous free trial being a disaster because MLB was unable to handle the traffic of viewers wanting to check out the bells and whistles. That was with a series of games throughout the day; these games will be running at the same time. I hope MLB is better prepared.

***

While talking about the latest improvements to Fenway Park, Larry Lucchino said:

We are told by our engineers and architects that we will be able to play baseball in Fenway Park for the next 40 to 50 years.

I'd rather not ever see the Red Sox play in a different home park. If Lucchino is right, I won't.

***

John Tomase asked Terry Francona if he ever did anything memorable in Shea Stadium.

"I played my only game at third base there. It was the last day of the (1985) season. Hubie (Brooks) didn't want to get an at-bat or something like that. Then they brought Jeff Reardon in and he had a bunch of money riding on a save. I was like, '(Expletive) this.' I didn't want to throw a ball away and cost him $150,000.

Francona had to make one play, cutting across the mound to grab a swinging bunt by Larry Bowa before throwing him out.

Francona and Tomase get some stuff right and some stuff wrong. (Note: It's easy to check this stuff.)

Sunday, October 6, 1985. Last game of the season. Francona took over at third base after Brooks was pinch-run for in the 4th. Tito made three plays from third (not one), all grounders: Larry Bowa to end the fourth, John Christensen to end the fifth, and Ray Knight for the second out in the sixth.

He's right: it was his only game at third base. But when Reardon came into the game in the bottom of the eighth to save Montreal's 2-1 lead, Expos manager Buck Rodgers had Vance Law replace Francona at third. Tito never played behind Reardon in this game. Reardon picked up his 41st save (which led all MLB relievers). No idea about incentives, but with Reardon earning only $850,000 that year, does a $150,000 bonus (for most saves in MLB, maybe?) seem high? It does give him an even million, though.

In his one at-bat, Tito grounded back to the pitcher and was out 1-3.