BOSTON -- The weather -- cold, damp, gloomy -- is a perfect match for the Red Sox' fortunes these days, and the Sox will attempt to fight their way through both when they open a seven-game homestand tonight.
Losers of six of their last seven games, Boston will send a familiar batting order against Mike Pelfrey of the Twins, a team that swept the Sox last week in Minnesota to kick off the dismal road trip that ended with a heartbreaking, bottom-of-the-ninth loss Sunday against the Rangers.
"What we need is a good pitching performance and some timely hitting," John Farrell said before Tuesday's game. "No different than any other day that we take the field and compete to put together a quality game. Some opportunities have eluded us. We have not played well in some other situations. We need to do better."
Dustin Pedroia remains in the leadoff spot, despite his first hitless (0-for-5) performance since moving there nine games ago. He's batting .324 as the leadoff man this season.
"It could be revisited," Farrell said of Pedroia in the leadoff spot. "I know Dustin's preference -- well first of all, Dustin is a constant team player. He's going to do whatever is asked, whatever is best for this team. I know his presence is to hit in the two hole. He's performed great since moving to the leadoff spot, so what we need to do is to continue to soldify things and get on a consistent performance. Consistent winning ways."
Tonight's lineups:
RED SOX:
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Mookie Betts, CF
David Ortiz, DH
Hanley Ramirez, LF
Pablo Sandoval, 3B
Mike Napoli, 1B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Sandy Leon, C
Rusney Castillo, RF
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Clay Buchholz, P
Boston Red Sox
TWINS:
Brian Dozier, 2B
Torii Hunter, RF
Joe Mauer, 1B
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Kurt Suzuki, C
Eddie Rosario, LF
Eduardo Escobar, DH
Aaron Hicks, CF
Danny Santana, SS
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Mike Pelfrey, P