Youkilis says he's not upset about sitting

DETROIT -- Last season, Kevin Youkilis played in Boston's first 18 games before missing a game, the only one he missed in the team's 26 games in April.

On Sunday, the third game of the season, Youkilis was out of the lineup, with Nick Punto playing third base in his place.

"I go every day thinking I'm in the lineup even if I'm not because that's the mindset you have to have playing this game,'' Youkilis said, "because you could be inserted in the second inning.''

Youkilis was god awful this spring and has been tinkering with his swing since coming back from his injury last season. It's pretty obvious that things aren't going the way he wants, so I don't think that this is necessarily a "benching" as much as it's just Bobby give Youk more of a mental break than a physical break.

As I watch Nick Punto fly out to the shortstop with two men on one thing is blatantly obvious: This move was not made to create any kind of competition. It's just a manager fiddling around in the start of a season to see if something happens. Valentine essentially looked at the wall in his office this morning, threw some shit against it and what stuck was Nick Punto in the leadoff spot. Expect Youk to be back in there next game and hopefully he'll be the guy we've come to expect him to be.