"The Red Sox [team stats] started one of their worst lineups of the season yesterday. No Jacoby Ellsbury [stats]. No Kevin Youkilis [stats]. No David Ortiz [stats].

If ever a time screamed to move Carl Crawford up in the order, this was it.

He batted seventh.

It has been that kind of season for the $142 million man, who has struggled to find a comfort zone since Day 1 and is running out of time to make his first season with the Red Sox a productive one.

Yesterday, with left-hander Danny Duffy on the mound, Red Sox manager Terry Francona eschewed batting Crawford second — no doubt in large part because he started the game batting .179 against lefties — in favor of right-hander Darnell McDonald, who was hitting just .175 overall.

Both players responded with solo homers. McDonald blasted a 391-foot shot to left in the sixth, and Crawford followed suit with a bomb over the right field fence an inning later.

The homer turned what had been looking like another unproductive day (strikeout, weak groundout) into one Crawford could feel good about. Maybe it'll even get him going."