Xander Bogaerts gets his first Fenway start

For the first time since being called up to the Boston Red Sox, 20-year old phenom Xander Bogaerts will start in front of the home crowd at Fenway Park.

The right handed hitting shortstop was called up in the midst of a west coast road trip, so has only played in San Francisco and Los Angeles. That’s not to say Bogaerts didn’t have a good debut. He has hits in three of his first nine at bats.

This won’t be Bogaerts’ official Fenway debut. That came Tuesday when he was inserted into the game at third base late in the Red Sox 13-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He’ll again be at third Wednesday.

“It will help for today,” Bogaerts told Joe McDonald of ESPN Boston. “I was able to get all the butterflies out for today. Hopefully I can play good.”

The Red Sox plan to use Bogaerts as a full time shortstop in the future but with veteran Stephen Drew on a recent tear, the Red Sox are trying to get him time at third base.

“Man, I have a weird experience at third base,” he said with a smile. “Third base is a position where the ball doesn’t come to me a lot, and I don’t know why. It’s weird. I played a few games [in Pawtucket] before I got called up and I was getting maybe one, two balls a game hit to me. I played [third for the Netherlands] in the WBC, so I know how to play it a little bit.”

As for how he’s doing? Red Sox manager John Farrell has that information.

“A work in progress,” Farrell said. “Particularly on the long and short hop, depending upon the speed of the runner because there’s different footwork that will be executed in reading that hop. And with just a handful of games there’s limited opportunity, so the early work was critical in him getting comfortable over there.”

The Red Sox will send John Lackey (8-11, 3.17 ERA) to the hill while the Orioles counter with Bud Norris (9-10, 4.22 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 pm EST and you can watch the game on ESPN.