"The Red Sox were breathing a sigh of relief for J.D. Drew.

Drilled in the back of the right shoulder during Friday night’s ALCS Game 1 by a Grant Balfour fastball that briefly looked like it had hit him in the face, Drew was given a clean bill of health by manager Terry Francona yesterday.

The right fielder was also given the night off, but it had nothing to do with what had happened in the 2-0 victory. Instead, he sat against tough Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir, with Coco Crisp getting the start in center field and Jacoby Ellsbury shifting to right.

“I bet you he’s sore,” Francona said. “I hate to make light of when someone gets hit, but where I was sitting it looked like it hit him in the face. I was so relieved it didn’t.”

Balfour, the Rays reliever who routinely tops 95 mph, got Drew behind the left-handed hitter’s front shoulder in the eighth inning. Drew went down in a heap but eventually took first, windmilling his arm a couple of times to shake out the soreness.

As for the Game 2 lineup decision, Francona didn’t want the Red Sox to be too left-handed against Kazmir.

“I really wanted to play Coco, too,” Francona said. “Now we can have J.D. sitting over there. If they want to use Balfour, seeing J.D. might make them think twice. Or maybe they won’t.”

Either way, for a player with Drew’s history of injury, seeing him escape a near beaning was a relief.

“His demeanor, I knew he was OK,” Francona said. “He gathered himself and went to first.”

Maturation process

Jacoby Ellsbury didn’t even qualify to be a rookie last year, but that didn’t stop him from tearing up the Colorado Rockies in the World Series.

When Francona looks back on Ellsbury’s 2007 postseason success (.360 average), he sometimes wonders if it wasn’t too much too soon.

“There were times when I thought what he did last year was almost detrimental,” Francona said. “I’m glad he did it, but the bar was set so high and probably unrealistically. When a young kid goes through a whole year, there are going to be growing pains and I think he went through the normal growing pains (this year).”

Those pains came in the form of June and July, when Ellsbury hit .246. But he drove in a team-high six runs during the Division Series and was back atop the order against Kazmir. Ellsbury’s confidence has never wavered.

“He looked confident last year,” Francona said. “I think that’s part of the reason he was so good. The situation last year, he wanted to play, he was excited, he was definitely a big part of the wins. I don’t think he’s ever shrunk from wanting to be a leadoff hitter. That explains what he’s done.”"