The Sox may finally be settling on a workable solution at shortstop for the time being, and that answer begins and ends with 30-year-old journeyman SS Nick Green.

The Sox are an amazing 26-10 with Green in the starting lineup, and the infielder is hitting a respectable .279 with a pair of home runs and 19 RBIs in 43 games for the Red Stockings. Green and SS Julio Lugo had been engaged in something of a middle infield partnership after SS Jed Lowrie went out with surgery on his left wrist, but – amid serious defensive struggles by Lugo that led to some frustrating moments -- Green has closed a white-knuckled stranglehold over the starting shortstop job.

Lowrie will obviously be given every chance to claim his starting job back once he's ready to go at the end of June, but Green has won a spot on this Boston baseball team for the rest of the season. That much is just plainly stating the obvious. 

“I feel better every day,” said Green. “I love playing shortstop, and I really enjoy being in the middle of everything. I just keep going and trying to get better.”

Green’s value to the team was never more evident than in Boston’s come-from-behind win over the Yankees on Thursday night as the former Bronx Bomber touched off a three-run, seventh-inning rally with his leadoff single. He ended up scoring on a Kevin Youkilis RBI single, and then showed exactly why he’s in the starting lineup in the top of the ninth.

Despite some erratic defensive play through his stint with the Red Sox that have led to nine errors in 35 games at short, Green started off the top of the ninth frame with a diving stab up the middle on a rain-soaked Fenway infield. Green quickly picked himself up off the water-logged Fenway lawn, spun around and gunned down a hustling Derek Jeter with a perfect strike at first base. In the span of two innings, Green showed the letter-perfect example of why he’s impressed so many Sox officials since opening eyes with both his hustle and his opportunistic bat this spring.

“I don’t know how many shortstops make that play,” said Sox manager Terry Francona of a play that clearly robbed Jeter of a hit. “It was wet up the middle and he had enough arm. A lot of good things went into that play: timing of it, leading off the ninth. That was a pretty special play.”   

 

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