01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 5, 2004

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

CLEVELAND -- When Red Sox third baseman Bill Mueller arrived at Jacobs Field yesterday, he found a change on the lineup card next to his name.

Mueller has been hitting from the second spot in the batting order all season, but yesterday's lineup card looked more like last season's. Sure, there's a different manager filling out the lineup but the fact remains that Muller won last season's American League batting title, hitting .326 from the lower end of the order.

So, that's where he found himself last night.

Boston manager Terry Francona moved Mueller into the eighth spot and penciled the walk master, Mark Bellhorn, second.

Said Francona: "Just trying to give Billy a chance to take, I don't want to say stress off of him, or heat off him, but we want to put him into a position to take a deep breath. And, Bellhorn gets on base so well for us and we need to use that to our advantage. Billy beats himself up so much, so we put him in a position where he can relax a little bit."

Currently, Mueller is hitting .235 compared to his .323 clip of a year ago. On the club's current road trip he's 1-for-16 with one RBI.

"After the first inning you hit at all different times anyway," he said. "A number doesn't matter to me, I'm just happy to be in the lineup and contribute in any way I can like I always have. That's the way I approach it. There's no emphasis on the number in front of my name."

For much of last season he hit in the lower end of the lineup -- mostly seventh and eighth -- but as the season progressed he did find himself in the two-spot. In the 2003 postseason, however, he was back in the seventh and eighth positions.

Second time for Kim

Red Sox pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim will make his second start of the season today, after missing most of April with a shoulder strain. The submarine right-hander is slated to throw 85 pitches, 10 more than his last outing a week ago against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Fenway Park.

"He's not ready to got the distance yet," said Francona. "But, he'll get there. Bronson (Arroyo) will come out of the pen, so we're in pretty good shape there."

Senior pitching advisor for the Red Sox, Tony Cloninger, has been working specifically with Kim this season and the results have been better than a season ago. Kim's velocity and command has improved and Francona credits Cloninger with the improvements.

The spasms have stopped

Boston closer Keith Foulke, who has not pitched five days due to back spasms, said yesterday that those spasms have stopped. After receiving treatments yesterday, he said it was just a matter of getting the proper rest, allowing the muscle to relax.

"I don't want to take too many days off," he said. "You need to pitch to stay sharp."

Foulke had a similar problem last season while he was a member of the Oakland Athletics, so the club doesn't want to rush him back to action.

"We don't want to lose him for a while on something that we shouldn't lose him for a while," said Francona. "We've got guys who can get people out. We don't want to rush him back for an outing and lose him for a week because we weren't patient enough. When's he's ready, he'll pitch."

Millar rests his foot

Kevin Millar had last night off after he hit a foul ball off his left foot in his last at-bat Monday. He was hurting, so Francona pulled him from the lineup, but Millar's expected to be back in action tonight.

It's the second time this season he's fouled a pitch off his foot, so he began to wear a guard yesterday.

Port recovering from attack

Red Sox vice president of baseball operations, Mike Port, has been upgrading to fair condition after he suffered a heart attack last weekend in Boston.

The 58-year-old was also taken off a respirator and was breathing on his own yesterday. Also, he was awake and alert.

No new news on Nomar

Francona has given daily updates on Trot Nixon and Nomar Garciaparra, but yesterday didn't have any news on the rehabbing players. . . In a recent interview, Florida Marlins outfielder Jeff Conine said that Fenway Park had the worst field in the majors. He said the storied ballpark has a bad infield and didn't like the drainage holes in the outfield . . . Manny Ramirez hit his sixth home run of the season last night, crushing a 3-1 offering 459 feet into the left-field bleachers. Prior to last night's game, the Red Sox slugger was 2-for-14 on the club's current road trip. In his first two at-bats last night, it was obvious he was trying to overpower Cleveland starting pitcher, Jason Davis. After Ramirez hit the homer, he and Davis had words as he was going up the first-base line and again when he was crossing home plate. Of course, the Indians still had a five-run lead at the time . . . Cleveland reliever Kazuhito Tadano threw two eephus pitches last night. He threw a 52-mph pitch to Ortiz for a ball before dropping a 56 mph on Varitek, which he was able to foul back.