FORT MYERS, Fla. — Prior to their Grapefruit League game against the Red Sox Tuesday night, Rays stars Evan Longoria and Manny Ramirez took batting practice.

For Ramirez, it was yet another reunion with several of the Red Sox uniformed staff that have stayed in place since he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 31, 2008.

Ramirez said hi to several old friends and then, along with Longoria, put on a display for the fans at City of Palms Park. Ramirez, Longoria and B.J. Upton were in the same hitting group and it was Ramirez who belted several out, including a moon shot off the right side of the scoreboard in deep left-center.

Longoria batted third and Ramirez fourth in Tuesday night’s game, a likely scenario to take place when the season opens for the Rays.

John Lackey got the starting nod for the Red Sox. Lackey will start the season as Boston’s No. 2 starter and is in line to start the home opener at Fenway Park on April 8 against the Yankees.

The Red Sox countered with a lineup that will also likely mirror their Opening Day lineup with Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford hitting in the top third, Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz filling out 4-5-6 and J.D. Drew, Jason Varitek and Marco Scutaro rounding out the lineup.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — At first, Jon Lester said pitching against Roy Halladay in a spring training game didn’t mean anything extra special.

Then the Red Sox 2011 Opening Day starter thought about what he and the rest of the 10,912 on hand at Bright House Field watched from the Phillies starter.

“I’m not pitching against him but it is fun to watch him pitch,” said Lester, who actually not only pitched against Halladay but surrendered his first hit of the day to the Phillies ace after Halladay a pitch earlier fouled a ball off his face.

Halladay pitched into the eighth for Philadelphia, throwing nearly 100 pitches over 7 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and one run, walking three and striking out six.

Lester was dominant for five innings but came unraveled in the sixth as the Phillies beat the Red Sox, 4-1, Monday afternoon at Bright House Field in Clearwater. The game was a match-up of aces as Lester opposed Philadelphia’s Halladay.

[Red Sox-Phillies boxscore.]

[Lester speaks about his final extending spring outing of 2011.]

Lester allowed five hits, four runs, three earned over 5 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out six while throwing 98 pitches, 56 for strikes. Despite allowing six walks over 10 1/3 innings over his last two starts, Lester feels ready for April 1 in Texas.

“I’ve walked plenty of guys before,” said Lester, who will have a final tuneup this Sunday in Sarasota against the Orioles. “It’s not a big deal. Obviously, it’s not something I want to do. It’s something I’m trying to work on but at the same time, it is what it is. I didn’t really get a whole lot of ground balls today. I don’t know what that means as far as the way my stuff played out.

“Sometimes just being stupid, trying to throw the perfect pitch,” Lester added. “I came out of my delivery a couple of times. I don’t know if that’s fatigue or if it’s just me trying to do too much. I had a pretty good five innings as far as efficiency. I don’t know if I just wanted that sixth inning to be over with and in my mind, just put it to the wayside but obviously, not what I wanted.”
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David Ortiz and the Red Sox are hoping spring signs point to a good start in 2011.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Terry Francona trusts his players will do the right thing to get reason for the season. He knows that if he shows trust in spring training, he and the team will reap the rewards when it matters.

Francona, of course, has always shown great loyalty to his players and none more than David Ortiz.

So when his slugger expressed a desire – along with Dustin Pedroia – to travel two hours north on a busy Monday to play the Phillies in a Grapefruit League game, Francona had no problem fulfilling the request.

“David wants to play pretty much every day. I don’t think enough to go to Jupiter [Thursday vs. Marlins].” Francona said Monday morning. “I think it’s been beat on him so much. Last year, after that first ‘oh-for,’ the whole world came to an end. I’m sure he’d like to shut everybody up. And from where I sit, I hope he does. It’ll make my life a lot easier.”

[Francona speaks about Ortiz wanting to silence the 'April' critics this spring.]

Ortiz went 0-for-7 in his first two games of 2010 against the Yankees and 1-for-11 in the season-opening series. He was asked about it after the second game and suggested fans and media “relax” about his slow start. Ortiz is hitting .263 this spring with one homer and five RBIs in 14 games. Ortiz had 62 at-bats with five walks and three homers in 2010 spring training but with 14 strikeouts and finished batting just .226.

This year, he has 42 plate appearances and has fanned eight times. Francona said he doesn’t have a figure in mind for the ideal number of plate appearances to get ready for the season.

“I don’t even know what the number is,” Francona said. “We keep track of plate appearances but he’s played enough. You just can’t bottle it or turn the switch on. Some guys get hurt, they get two games and they go 4-for-4 the first day, and then they feel good about themselves. It’s the [darnedest] thing.

“He has looked, for the most part, really good. I think there’s been days where he’s gotten a little out of sync. But saying that, everybody does because they don’t play every day. He’ll have one day where he swings the bat well then he sits for a day or he hits a bunch. That’s the way it is with everybody. There’s no way you’re going to keep your swing in tact when you’re not playing every day.”

Francona said Pedroia insisted on making the trip to Clearwater, joining Ortiz and other regulars, including Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron.

“We try to check with them,” Francona said. “That’s the whole idea is to get guys feeling good about themselves as we leave [for the season]. There’s no magic formula. We don’t have to push these guys. They’re good about wanting to be ready. They all want to be ready. We all try to do what they think is in their best interest. Like Pedey wanted to come up here real bad. He wanted to play four out of five. He probably knows himself better than I do.”

Monday marks an important day for Opening Day starter Jon Lester. The starting pitcher had made four starts entering Monday’s contest against the Phillies. Francona said he will have his longest outing of the spring, throwing between 85-95 pitches.

“Hopefully, he gets good and stretched out and then back off a little bit on his last one,” Francona said. “We have a night game [Tuesday] and a day off [Wednesday] and then, except for that Jupiter trip [vs. Marlins], we’ll start trying to play guys a little bit longer or more consistently.

“I don’t think you have to play nine [innings] in spring training to be ready for a season. It just doesn’t translate but we will get them a lot of back-to-back of four at-bats.”

Ortiz and Pedroia aren’t the only regulars wanting to go the extra mile this spring to be ready for the season. Adrian Gonzalez will take part in a minor league game on Wednesday – an off day for the big league team. Francona will be on hand to watch.

“I told him if he doesn’t want to [play], he doesn’t have to,” Francona said. “But I’m planning on going down there with him, just to watch.”

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Daisuke Matsuzaka was effective and efficient on Sunday but his two-out walk with none on in the 6th opened the door for a 10-run sixth as the Cardinals routed the Red Sox, 10-3, Sunday afternoon at City of Palms Park.

[Red Sox-Cardinals boxscore].

Matsuzaka allowed three hits and two earned runs over 5 2/3 innings, walking two and striking out four. He threw 79 pitches, 50 for strikes, in his longest outing of the spring. Matsuzaka, who is now 0-2 with a 6.05 ERA this spring, needed just 64 pitches to get through five innings.

“I thought he had good tempo, threw strikes,” manager Terry Francona said. “That’s two in a row now so he’s starting to get geared up. He probably could’ve gone a hitter or two more. I wanted to see Andrew face a lefty and it kind of fell apart from there.”

[Francona explains why he was happy with Matsuzaka's outing Sunday vs. the Cardinals.]

Matsuzaka was coming off a start last Tuesday in Lakeland against the Tigers in which he allowed just two hits over five shutout innings, walking one and striking out five.

“I thought the last outing he had pretty good life too,” Francona said. “Again, you’re getting to that point in spring training where they’re probably gotten through the dead-arm period and they’re starting to get built up now where we’re getting pretty close to the start of the season.”

After getting two quick outs in the sixth, Matsuzaka walked Albert Pujols and then surrendered a long run-scoring double to right-center by Matt Holliday.

Francona pulled Matsuzaka for lefty reliever Andrew Miller, who struggled badly. The former No. 1 pick of the Tigers in 2006 faced six batters and didn’t retire a batter, allowing four hits and six runs while walking two.

“He walked the first hitter and that’s kind of a reminder when coming out of the bullpen of how important it is to attack the strike zone,” Francona said of Miller. “He had an infield single and a bloop and it kind of fell apart from there.”

Scott Atchison came in and allowed a bases-loaded double to Pujols to make it, 9-0, before Holiday followed with another run-scoring double. The Cardinals had 11 consecutive batters reach in the sixth with two outs.

The Red Sox travel to Clearwater Monday as Jon Lester matches up against Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A quick glance at the lineup posted in the Red Sox clubhouse Sunday morning and you could draw the natural conclusion that it very well could mirror the one that will be in the visitors clubhouse on April 1 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas.

But Terry Francona said the lineup consisting of Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, J.D. Drew, Jason Varitek and Marco Scutaro wasn’t even his creation.

“We make them out three or four days ahead of time. DeMarlo [Hale] may have actually done it,” Francona said.

So, Sunday’s lineup against the Cardinals isn’t necessarily a sign that it’s going to be exactly the same on Opening Day?

“I don’t know,” Francona said. “Probably, no.”

One thing Francona did address is how important it will be to manage the speed at the top of the lineup with Ellsbury and Crawford likely to be somewhere in the top of the order to start the season and Dustin Pedroia in between.

While it might seem Francona would like to control when and how his speedsters run the bases, he realizes that he has to leave that up to the good judgment of his players.

“I don’t know if we really have to pick our spots,” Francona said Sunday. “What we care about is just not making outs. They’re going to get thrown out [stealing] and they’re going to get picked off. They have to but, again, they’re going to have the freedom to run.

“I’ve talked to Pedey because Pedey is going to be smack in the middle of those guys, I don’t want him to just sit there and take pitches, either. If Pedey is a little bit aggressive and they’re running, and Jacoby steals 65 instead of 70, what a weapon to have a guy that’s fast, a hole opening and a good hitter up. That’s a nice combination.”

Francona doesn’t want to hear about how a hitter is bothered by runners dancing off second base. That job is up to the hitter to communicate with his teammate.

“If you have a guy on second and it’s bugging the hitter, then they need to be still,” Francona said. “And that’s their responsibility to know each other. I get aggravated when somebody comes back in July and says [it's bothering me], you should have talked about that two months ago because we encourage guys to be aggressive, they’re fast. We also encourage them to communicate with each other.”

Daniel Nava made a name for himself on his first big league swing last June.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Nearly every Red Sox fan remembers how Daniel Nava broke into the majors last June.

With the bases loaded, he drilled the first pitch he saw in the big leagues – an offering from Philadelphia’s Joe Blanton – over the fence in right at Fenway.

On Sunday morning, he was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket by the Red Sox as the team trimmed three more players off the major league squad. Also optioned was catcher Mark Wagner while righthander Matt Fox was reassigned.

Such is the life of a major leaguer on the fringes. But Red Sox manager Terry Francona offered perspective Sunday in assessing where the 28-year-old in his development.

“He didn’t swing the bat real well this spring, which in the grand scheme of things means nothing,” Francona said of Nava, who batted just .205 this spring in 19 games, with three RBIs.. “I think he was fighting it all spring. He got a little length in his swing. He knows he needs to shorten it up but he’s improved so much [defensively] in the outfield.”

“I mean, last year at this time, I’m willing to bet no one ever asked me a Daniel Nava question. He’s come a long way. He just needs to go play and then whatever happens, happens. Guys play themselves into the mix. The fact that we’re talking about Daniel Nava means he’s come so far.”

Francona added that the organization still projects Nava as primarily a left fielder.

Wagner hit .167 in nine games this spring while Fox was 0-0 with a 2.57 ERA in five relief appearances. But Francona was quick to point out that it’s Wagner’s defensive skills – especially game managing behind the plate – the organization really values. Last year, that was stunted when he missed nearly half the season with Triple-A Pawtucket because of a broken bone in his left hand. Surgery was eventually required and now, he begins 2011 with a fresh start. Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Lefty Felix Doubront threw live batting practice on Friday on the field outside the left field wall at City of Palms Park.

Doubront was shut down for approximately two weeks when he felt tightness in his left elbow in late February while throwing a side session at the club’s minor league complex.

Manager Terry Francona said the team wasn’t overly concerned since Doubront has complained of the tightness in the past. On Friday, the lefty who made his Red Sox debut last year, threw for Francona and other Red Sox staff.

“I watched him. He was 25 [pitches],” Francona reported. “He felt real good, he looked real good. His next [work] will be a simulated game. We’ll take the [protective L] screen away and it’ll be just a step closer to him pitching in a game. It’ll be at least two days, maybe three days off. We’ll see.”

The highly-touted 23-year-old lefty went 2-2 in 2010 with a 4.32 ERA in 12 appearances, including three starts.

Meanwhile, relievers Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard are expected to get their work in Sunday in a minor league game. Papelbon, who got only two outs on Thursday, will go two innings according to Francona while Bard is expected to go at least one inning.