Out of the Lineup but not the Line of Fire

Keep smiling, JD. I have your back! Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor and used with permission.

I received a text message from a dear friend today.  All is said was “Goodbye until Thanksgiving!”.  This friend knows me well.  A little more than an hour before the first pitch of the season!

We finally have an Opening Day lineup for the Red Sox.

Jacoby Ellsbury – CF
Dustin Pedroia – 2B
Carl Crawford – LF
Kevin Youkilis – 3B
Adrian Gonzalez – 1B
David Ortiz – DH
Mike Cameron – RF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – C
Marco Scutaro – SS
And we all know Jon Lester is the starting pitcher.  Kick some ass, Crabby.

I not so eagerly await all of the wondering about Cameron starting instead of Drew in spite of everyone knowing that CJ Wilson is the starting pitcher for the Rangers and the last thing the Sox need to do is start the season by loading up the lefties against a left-handed pitcher.  Sean McAdam tweeted last night about JD Drew being taken out of the game so early as if we should be worried about him being hurt.

J.D. Drew has come out of game in the middle of fourth, replaced in RF by Mike Cameron. No reason given yet.

You know I couldn’t let that go without a response, which I offered*:

Geez you think maybe “The Red Sox are killing the Astros and this game doesn’t count” might be a good enough reason?

Some day JD Drew will learn of my tireless pursuit of justice for him and say “Didn’t she have anything better to do?”

*As a rule, I usually unfollow most of the Boston baseball media come Opening Day because I don’t like to engage them online since mostly the encounters would be fueled by something negative.  I need to sit down tonight and weed out my follow list in an effort to retain my baseball sanity.