Will Middlebrooks Hitting Second, Dustin Pedroia in Cleanup Spot As Red Sox Welcome Orioles

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May 4, 2012

Will Middlebrooks Hitting Second, Dustin Pedroia in Cleanup Spot As Red Sox Welcome OriolesWill Middlebrooks' second major league start will come from the second spot in the Red Sox batting order.

The recently called up Middlebrooks will be in the second spot for Bobby Valentine as the Sox welcome the second-place Baltimore Orioles to town for the first meeting of the season between the AL East rivals.

With Middlebrooks moving up to the No. 2 spot in the order, second baseman Dustin Pedroia slides down to hit cleanup for the Red Sox who will be taking on Wei-Yin Chen. Pedroia will likely have no qualms about hitting cleanup. In 31 career appearances in the No. 4 spot, he's a .397 hitter with seven home runs and 28 RBIs.

Here's the rest of the Red Sox lineup behind Friday's starter Jon Lester.

Red Sox (11-13)
Mike Aviles, SS
Will Middlebrooks, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Cody Ross, RF
Darnell McDonald, LF
Marlon Byrd, CF
Kelly Shoppach, C

Jon Lester, P

Orioles (16-9)
Robert Andino, 2B
J.J. Hardy, SS
Nick Markakis, RF
Adam Jones, CF
Matt Wieters, DH
Wilson Betemit, LF
Chris Davis, 1B
Mark Reynolds, 3B
Ronny Paulino, C

Wei-Yin Chen, P

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