For the most part, Andrew Benintendi will serve as the team's leadoff hitter during the regular season -- certainly against righthanders.
But when Red Sox draw a lefty starter, Ron Roenicke would prefer not to have two lefties -- Benintendi and Rafael Devers -- back-to-back in the top two spots.
As such, Roenicke has been discussing alternatives for the leadoff spot for when he hits Benintendi somewhat lower in the order, or gives him a night off altogether.
"I know (Kevin) Pillar can do it,'' said Roenicke. "I feel good with him up there against the lefthanders. Then, we'll just kind of see. We'll see how (Jose) Peraza hits. He's a possibility. He's a guy that I'm familiar with that used to be a good baserunner, a good basestealer. So if gets (going with the bat), he could do it. So I think we have some options. Right off the bat, I might go with the two lefthanders and give those guys a chance to do it.
"I know we talked about the short season and how we need to get off to a good start. But I still know that, if those two guys are hitting well, Andrew and Devers, like we've seen so far, they're hitting lefthanders and righthanders right now. So I feel pretty comfortable with the both of them.''
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