John Farrell has three months to decide on a lineup for the Boston Red Sox, but he is leaning towards hitting Hanley Ramirez in the cleanup spot.

Farrell likes the left-right balance that hitting the left-handed David Ortiz, Ramirez (righty), Pablo Sandoval (switch-hitter) and Mike Napoli (right-handed) from third to sixth would give the club.

"The one thing that clearly stands out is we have balance left- and right-handed," Farrell said.

"I have always liked David in the No. 3 hole. You know he is going to come up in the first inning. I think Hanley gives David some protection behind him. Then you start to create some protection, and we want to keep Sandoval on the left side of the plate as much as possible -- so if you sandwich him in between Ramirez and Napoli, you start to have a formidable middle of the order where you're going left-right-left-right all the way through there."