CLEVELAND - As he did a few times in the final week, John Farrell had Brock Holt lifted to second in the order, with Xander Bogaerts dropped to sixth for Game 1 of the Red Sox' ALDS with the Cleveland Indians Thursday night.
"It's not as much about [dropping] Bogey as much as it is spreading out the left-handers,'' said Farrell. "For the better part of the year, we've been an easy team to match up against. I think it's pretty clear there's willingness to go to the bullpen [in the postseason] and match up earlier. We're trying to avoid the obvious ones and not go to the bench [early].''
Farrell said he gave some consideration to hitting Andrew Benitendi second, but noted that the rookie outfielder, who is hitting ninth, is "probably the better left-handed bat, left on left. So if there's going to be exposure to a lefty, I'm more apt to protect Brock with two right-handers than Andrew.''