Retooled Red Sox bank on pitching, defense

John Lackey dresses next to Clay Buchholz, and Josh Beckett and Jon Lester play long toss together. Tim Wakefield roams the Red Sox's minor-league complex like the father figure he is, and Daisuke Matsuzaka? There he is, holding court with the Japanese media.

You needn't wait for the full squad to arrive to witness the true stars of these 2010 Red Sox.

Now having gone two years without a world championship, the Sawx spent their offseason reading the market. Rather than trying to keep up with the Yankees' explosive lineup, they attempted to contain it.

Enter John Lackey, the longtime Angels horse, to follow Beckett and Lester in the rotation. What a season-opening Yankees-Red Sox series that'll be at Fenway Park.

Back up the three aces with the up-and-coming Buchholz, the mysterious yet talented Matsuzaka and the venerable Wakefield, along with the standard deep bullpen.

Support the staff with a flurry of defensive upgrades: Adrian Beltre at third base, Marco Scutaro at shortstop, Mike Cameron in centerfield and Jacoby Ellsbury shifting from center to left.

Mix and serve, and you have a club that is emphasizing run prevention at the expense of run production - a move that most in the industry think will work, given the personnel involved.

"If you are going to be short somewhere, it better had not be pitching," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "That's the one way to derail your season, in my opinion. When you go through the [American League] East, if you use your bullpen before you want to, it doesn't usually end up good."

"This pitching staff is going to be great," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "We've just got to find a way to go out and score runs for them, and I think we'll be fine."

They won't be your fearsome Red Sox lineup of 2003-05. Beltre, Cameron and Scutaro all have put up nice offensive seasons at times, but none would be regarded as an elite hitter in 2010.

"Guys are going to have to step up," Pedroia said. "I'm going to have to step up. Everyone is. That's how it goes during the season. Everyone's going to have to have good at-bats and put them together to score a lot of runs. We'll do that. We'll be better than other people think."

The key offensive player arguably will be David Ortiz, who began last season horribly (a .317 on-base percentage and .416 slugging percentage) before putting up a more representative second half (.350 OBP, .516 SLG). If, in the last year of his contract, Ortiz can approach that second-half production, and if Beltre can match his statistics from 2007 and 2008, that trade for San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez might not be necessary.

Nevertheless, this offense, even at its peak, won't be elite. Whereas the pitching staff and defense could team to create something spectacular.

The contrarian Beckett, who is in his walk year, proclaimed: "I don't know what 'ace' is. Is that an acronym for something?"

Pedroia, as a hitter, envisioned how it will be for those opponents taking on Beckett, Lester and Lackey consecutively.

"That's the thing that position players look at: who we're facing when we go to each team," Pedroia said. "When you're facing those guys, you know it's a tough draw. It's definitely exciting knowing that, coming in, if we score three or four runs, we have a good chance of winning. It makes it easier for us."

Every season features its surprises, and Francona warned, "We don't know what our strengths are going to be." But if you're into 3-2 games, you could make worse bets than following the Red Sox this season. And guessing that Boston will win most of those games.