Hinske

BOSTON — Eric Hinske got a chance to play for the Red Sox yesterday and he made the most of it.

Hinske had two hits and two walks and scored three times in Boston’s 8-0 victory over Anaheim. He played first base and hit second in the order, replacing Kevin Youkilis.

Youkilis has a bruise and swelling on his right forearm, the result of being hit by a pitch Friday night, but that wasn’t why he had the day off. Manager Terry Francona wanted to give Hinske some work.

“If guys go too long [without playing], it’s not fair to expect any production. So we’re trying to pick some spots,” Francona said of using his bench players.

“We’ll mix and match,” the manager added. “One of these games we’ll move ‘Youk’ to third and let Hinkse play first, or have Hinske play third. We’ve got to figure out the right day. You don’t want to do them all the same day.”

Youkilis shrugged off the swelling in his forearm saying he was ready, willing and able to play. But he also said he understood what Francona was doing.

“You’ve got to be a team player. You can be selfish all you want, but it’s not going to get you anywhere,” he said. “This is a long year and we need everyone on the team, one through 25, to help out every day. For us it’s all about winning. It doesn’t matter if you play 162 games and you don’t win.”

“There’s never a perfect day,” said Francona of giving guys an off-day. “It comes and goes with weather and Hinske is swinging the bat pretty well. We want to keep that going. We can’t play 10 guys.

The move worked out just fine. Hinske tripled off the wall near the 379-foot sign in center in the third and scored the game’s first run. He also singled to help set up a run in the fourth and walked and scored in a two-run sixth.

“I usually get one a year, maybe two if I’m lucky,” Hinske said of his triple. “Any time I get in there I just try to help the team win. All I can do is control what I do on the field. I prepare like I’m going to play every day and go out and hope for the best.”

“It’s actually really exciting,” Francona said of Hinske’s effort. “Eric has worked so hard. He’s had some great at-bats. So, yeah, it’s very exciting for everyone to see him have some success because he’s been sitting around.”

Crisp to play through slump

On the other side of the coin, Coco Crisp seemed to be in a good position for a day off. He began the day hitting .121, including 0-for-8 in the previous two games. But Francona made it a point to keep him in the lineup.

One reason was because Curt Schilling started for the Sox.

“He’s a fly ball pitcher,” Francona said, adding that he wanted to go with his best defensive outfield.

Another reason is that the manager felt it might do more harm than good to make Crisp sit and worry about his problems.

“It will turn around, but in the meantime it’s not a lot of fun. He’s frustrated,” Francona said. “Sometimes you want to hit for him because you want him to get a hit so bad. I think the best thing to do, for me, is not make a big deal about it. He’s scuffling, I see that. I feel for him. But I’m going to keep throwing him out there, keep playing him.”

Crisp, who has a career history of starting slowly, obviously appreciated being able to play.

“Of course I want to be out there. Defensively it’s fine. There is no problem,” he said. “It’s going up to the plate and trying to clear your mind and forget about the numbers that are up on the scoreboard. That’s the difficult thing about the game, when the numbers aren’t looking too good. It’s not being able to see the numbers; it’s going out there and having confidence, heart and will to try to do your best out there.”

As was the case with Youkilis yesterday, Crisp will get some rest. This simply was not the right time, Francona felt.

“There’s going to be a point where Wily Mo [Pena] plays in center regardless of how [Crisp] hits because we need to get Wily Mo in a game,” Francona said. “But I didn’t want to do it today. I want him to go back out there and start swinging it because the sooner he swings it like he can the better off we all are. And it’s going to happen. We just want it to happen sooner rather than later.”

Nothing improved yesterday. Crisp went 0-for-3 with a walk to drop his average to .111.

Drew’s hitting streak ends

J.D. Drew’s hitting streak came to an end. He was 0-for-3 and was pinch-hit for by Pena in the eighth. He had been one of seven players in the majors to have a hit in all his team’s games this season.

jmcdonal@projo.com