Jed Lowrie has been receiving some extra playing time with the Red Sox. He’s been given first base duties while Manager Terry Francona tries to figure out what to do with the vacancy created by the injury to Kevin Youkilis. Primarily a shortstop or second baseman, Lowrie has just been doing as he’s told in order to keep his team in the playoff race. The Sox remain a handful of games back of Tampa Bay and New York, but are having difficulty gaining ground.

Lowrie has been filling in at first base when Mike Lowell hasn’t been. He’s now amassed nine total innings, but made his first blunder on a pop foul by Blue Jay catcher John Buck in extra innings. Lowrie had plenty of time to field the ball just to the left of first base, but it hit off the heel of his glove and Lowrie was awarded the rarely-seen “dropped foul pop” error. After Buck ended up striking out, Lowrie made up for his mistake by leading off the bottom frame with a walk-off home run.

Lowrie has yet to spend a full season in the majors, and playing for the Red Sox may prevent his doing so for some time. The Sox can afford some of the best positional players in the game and until Lowrie proves himself to be one of those players, he’ll remain behind guys like Dustin Pedroia and Marco Scutaro. For now, Scutaro has proven to be a better hitter and Pedroia; well he’s an American League MVP.

The injury-plagued Red Sox have looked to younger guys like Lowrie to eat up some innings while the regulars get healthy. With Youkilis gone for the season and Carlos Delgado’s attempt to comeback stalled by a sore back in the minors, Lowrie may start getting a bigger share of playing time at first base. He’s already a proficient middle infielder and can hold his own at third, but errors he’ll need to wipe errors like that in the 11th against the Jays from his game entirely. If he doesn’t, he’ll remain a temporary solution to the injury bug.