Return of Pedroia leads to lineup realignment

TAMPA — As the Red Sox begin a big five-game road trip against their closest competitors in the division, they own a six-game winning streak, and their moribund offense has come to life of late, averaging 6.7 runs in that span.

So that would, on the face of it, make this a strange time to re-arrange the lineup that is, after some fits and starts, finally firing at full efficiency of late. And yet, that's what happened.

For Tuesday’s night opener at Tropicana Field, John Farrell had Eduardo Nunez hitting first, Dustin Pedroia (newly activated from the DL) second, Andrew Benintendi third and Mookie Betts fourth. It marked the first time this season that Betts had hit fourth, after spending the vast majority of the first 112 games hitting leadoff (81 times) and another 26 games hitting third.

“When you look at the combination,’’ said John Farrell, “the one guy who’s been in the four hole a little bit more than others (in the past) has been Mookie. And if we can get on base at the rate (they’ve been going), the 1-2-3 guys, we’ll try to take advantage of Mookie’s ability with men in scoring position. He’s been so good this year (.404).’’

From the fifth spot down, the lineup remained essentially unchanged. But Farrell wanted to have Nunez and his base-stealing capability at the top, and provide some RBI opportunities for Betts.

Farrell said he had spoken to Betts about the change “so when he walked in, it wasn’t a shock to him. We’ve had conversations, off and on, in the last month, Mookie and I , about spot in the lineup and days in which he’s scuffled, how a different look might give him a different view of things. But I think our guys do a good job not hitting to the spot in the lineup and (don’t try) to do more than their physical abilities allow. He’s been in the spot before and he’s been successful there, so that's what the lineup is.’’

A year ago, when he finished runner-up to Mike Trout in AL MVP balloting, Betts hit fourth nearly a quarter of the season (36 games).

As for the shakeup in the top four spots at a time when the Sox are producing better than they have all season, Farrell said: “They’re all in the lineup. If they take their at-bats like they’ve been…There was a time last year when I met with (Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Pedroia), and Mookie was in the leadoff spot and all were swinging the bat very well.  But we thought, ‘If there’s a little bit of realignment, do we have the potential to take advantage of some of the home runs that Mookie was providing at the time?’ It worked. We were able to be a little bit more ahead with some runs scored. If that takes place with this scenario, all the better. They know they’re going to be in the lineup every day and that’s probably the biggest thing.’’

Farrell added that he liked having Nunez at the top of the order to take advantage of his base-stealing ability. Nunez is 3-for-3 in base stealing attempts since joining the Sox and was 18-for-23 with the Giants.

“That added component at the top is another benefit,’’ Farrell said.