NEW YORK -- Another ballpark, another outfield alignment.
The Red Sox continue to experiment with different outfielders in different spots, but the latest is somewhat driven by a minor injury.
For the opener of their four-game series at Yankee Stadium, the Sox had Mookie Betts back in center field, with Jackie Bradley Jr. in left and Brock Holt in right.
Rusney Castillo had been playing left field the last few weeks, but according to interim manager Torey Lovullo, has been dealing with a mild upper right quad strain and was held out of the lineup Monday as a precaution.
"Rusney's just had a day off (Sunday) and he's been going hard,'' said Lovullo, "and he's got a little fatigue and tenderness in that area. I figured we'd get ahead of it and give him the day off and see where we're at tomorrow. He can play today, in an emergency. It just made a lot of sense at this point of time to (give him some time).
"He could have played. Knowing how hard he plays and how well he wants to do, he would have probably had his governor off and maybe strained it a little bit more. It just made sense to me to pull him away from it today and get ahead of it for tomorrow.''
As for center, Betts had played right field in Toronto in the last road series, then for the entire homestand.
Boston Red Sox
But Monday, he was back where he's played for much of the season.
"I felt like I didn't want Mookie to get too far away from center field,'' said Lovullo, "so I was going to sprinkle in from time-to-time. I hadn't drawn up the exact playbook, but I knew that I wanted to get him some (more) looks in center field.''
Meanwhile, with Yankee Stadium a sort of mirror opposite of Fenway -- with a bigger left field and smaller right -- it made sense for Bradley to play left, and Holt, filling in as the extra outfielder, to get put in right.