OAKLAND — For the second straight game, J.D. Drew watched the action from the bench, at least at the start of last night’s game.

The struggling right fielder was held out of the starting lineup for several reasons by manager Terry Francona.

One of the reasons was that the Red Sox were facing a left-handed starter for the second consecutive game, in this case Joe Kennedy, who has been tough on left-handed hitters (.122 batting average against for the season, 2-for-31 his last six starts). Drew, a left-handed hitter, is batting .227 against lefties and .224 overall.

Francona also said yesterday that Wily Mo Pena, who again was replacing Drew in right field, had been taking some good hacks recently, another reason to give Drew an extra day to work with hitting coach Dave Magadan and regroup mentally.

Drew, who missed a few games last week because of a tight right hamstring, is expected to be back in the lineup today after a quick turnaround, in a game that will start at 12:35 p.m. locally.

Win-win for bench coach

The annual draft of free agents will take place today.

The Red Sox do not have a pick in the first round, having forfeited that selection to the Los Angeles Dodgers for signing Julio Lugo as a free agent in the offseason.

Boston, though, does have two “sandwich” picks between the first and second rounds because the Red Sox lost free agents to Cincinnati (Alex Gonzalez) and Cleveland (Keith Foulke). Boston’s first two picks will be the 55th and 62nd selections overall.

There will be some interest in Oakland as the draft is going on, though, because Beau Mills, the son of Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills, is projected to go at some point in the first round. The Athletics have provided a suite for the Mills family, which lives in Visalia, about 150 miles from the McAfee Coliseum where Boston will be playing Oakland.

The first pitch of today’s game will come about an hour and a half after the draft begins. Francona, who has been friends with Mills for a long time and has seen Beau grow up, is hoping Beau goes early enough that Brad can celebrate with his son and the rest of the family in the suite before assuming his duties on the Red Sox bench.

“Beau is going to get drafted; he’ll be able to play pro ball, which is what he wants to do, and he’ll probably get a lot of money, which is sure to make Millsy (Brad) happy because he’s as tight (with a dollar) as (can be),” joked Francona.

Youkilis not on the ballot

Some things in life are not fair, and, while it doesn’t rank up near the top of any list of world troubles, the balloting for the All-Star Game is one of them.

Kevin Youkilis, who is having an outstanding season, entering last night’s game with a .341 batting average and a 23-game hitting streak on his recent resumé, is not even listed on the ballot at first base.

The Sox’ representative at first is David Ortiz because there is no slot for a designated hitter for the game to be played July 10 at AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants.

Ortiz is a runaway voting leader at first base with 775,734 votes in the latest accounting. Ortiz, of course, is having a terrific season, batting .332 with 10 homers and 41 RBI prior to last night’s game.

Closer’s role for Embree

At the age of 37, and in his 13th big-league season as a reliever, Alan Embree has finally been thrust into the closer’s role.

It wasn’t exactly through any grand plan on the Athletics’ part. Indeed, it took injuries to two other pitchers — Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer — to prompt manager Bob Geren to turn to Embree for those vital last few outs.

But so far Embree has made the most of his opportunity. Tuesday night the left-hander closed out a 2-0 win for Oakland over Boston, one of his eight former big-league teams. He hasn’t been perfect — he blew a save against the Sox on Monday night — but he has gone 5-for-6 so far.

“It is weird to be 37 and now getting a chance to do this, even if it is only by default,” said Embree. “But it’s nice. It’s different in a good way, one of the biggest challenges of my career. I’m grateful the manager has the confidence in me to give me this chance.”

Embree has pitched as a setup man for several hot closers, notably Trevor Hoffman (San Diego), Foulke (Chicago White Sox, Boston), Jose Mesa (Cleveland), Mark Wohlers (Atlanta), Gregg Olson (Arizona) and Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees). He did have one chance to establish himself as a closer — in Boston.

“That was the year (2003) Grady (manager Grady Little) decided to go with the closer by committee,” said Embree with a grin. “I came into the first game in Tampa, gave up a couple of runs and we lost. I had a sore shoulder, missed some time and the next save chance I had was in September.”

Embree had eight career saves (four with Boston) in 708 games in the majors before this season.

No change in roster

When the Red Sox open their interleague road schedule tomorrow in Arizona, Francona said he didn’t expect to be altering the makeup of his roster relative to the number of position players and pitchers.

In the American League, the Red Sox have four bench players. In the National League parks, they will have five because the DH isn’t used and the pitchers will have to hit.

“We’re not going to re-do our roster for a three-game series,” said Francona.

He did say, though, that a move with the pitching staff may have to be made because Mike Timlin is expected to be activated on Saturday.

skrasner@projo.com