TOKYO -- In something of a surprise, manager Terry Francona had Dustin Pedroia leading off and Kevin Youkilis hitting second despite the presence of Jacoby Ellsbury in the lineup for Saturday’s exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers. Ellsbury hit eighth.

It had been assumed that Ellsbury would hit leadoff if he claimed the center-field job.

“We’ll see,” said Francona. “We can hit Ellsbury toward the bottom (of the order) and if he wants to get hot, we can always move him (to the top).”

Francona reminded reporters that Pedroia hit toward the bottom of the order last April before being elevated as the season wore on. It’s likely that the Sox don’t want to put any additional pressure on Ellsbury early in the season.

Ellsbury has struggled this spring, hitting only .209 (9-for-43) with a .271 on-base percentage.

--- Saturday’s game against the Tigers wasn’t a first for Francona.

When he was a sophomore at the University of Arizona, they came over for an exhibition tour against some U.S. college teams. “We knocked them around a little bit,” recalled Francona with a smile. “They let us use aluminum bats -- that was a mistake.”

Francona said that while it was only an exhibition game “but it was something different. We had never seen anything like it.”

--- Coco Crisp, who missed several weeks because of a slight groin strain, told Francona he “continues to feel better and better” . . . Bartolo Colon is working out in Fort Myers with an eye toward starting one of the exhibition games against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Francona said Colon would “probably” start the first game, on Friday, March 28, but the Sox are keeping their options open with the rotation.

smcadam@projo.com