Now batting cleanup for your Boston Red Sox, #15 Dustin Pedroia (pause) Pedroia. More on that in a bit.

Michael Bowden makes his MLB debut tonight for the Red Sox.

Tonight Terry Francona entrusts 21-year old Michael Bowden to go out and try to beat one of the better teams in the American League in the Chicago White Sox. We all know the braintrust wouldn’t have him here if they didn’t think he could do the job.

In 19 starts with the Portland Sea Dogs, Bowden was 9-4 with a 2.33 ERA. In 7 appearances (6 starts) with the PawSox, Bowden is 0-3 with a 3.38 ERA. He has a combined 130 strikeouts and 29 walks issued with the PawSox and Sea Dogs.

Ozzie Guillen gives the ball tonight to his trusted lefty Mark Buehrle to get the White Sox back on the winning side of things. Buehrle has made 12 appearances (11 starts) in his career against the Red Sox and is 5-4 with a 4.16 ERA.

Sean Casey checks in with another video blog over at WEEI.com.

It appears whatever is bothering Coco Crisp is now affecting Kevin Youkilis and Josh Beckett. With Beckett on the DL, it’s okay if he’s sick but losing Youk is a big thing given his red-hot bat lately.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump

Here is your cleanup hitter tonight for the Red Sox.

You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best MLB players in the land for 2 years. And now you’re going to walk out there as the cleanup hitter of the Boston Red Sox. In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen. Now go on back.

With regards to the writer of Rudy on that one.

That’s right, Dustin Pedroia will be your cleanup hitter tonight with Youk out. Pedroia jokingly told Francona, it’s about time and Big Papi said he was going to retire according to Nick Cafardo. So let’s just say tonight’s Red Sox lineup is just a wee bit interesting.

76-58

1. Orlando Cabrera, SS
2. A.J. Pierzynski, C
3. Carlos Quentin, LF
4. Jermaine Dye, RF
5. Jim Thome, DH
6. Alexei Ramirez, 2B
7. Ken Griffey Jr., CF
8. Nick Swisher, 1B
9. Joe Crede, 3B

- Mark Buehrle, SP

78-56

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Jed Lowrie, 3B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
5. Mark Kotsay, RF
6. Jason Bay, LF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Jeff Bailey, 1B
9. Alex Cora, SS

- Michael Bowden, SP

Here is how the hitters have done against tonight’s starters. No one on the White Sox has faced Bowden.