Considering Ellsbury hits .289 with a .355 OBP vs LHP, and Gonzalez is hitting .316 with a .381 OBP vs LHP, I really thought Francona would go Ells - Craw - Gonzo - Pedroia - Ortiz.
Crawford is the only one with poor splits vs LHP. The others have great numbers vs LHP, so throwing a LHP out of the pen vs those guys would be worthless. Crawford is 9 for his last 16. Small sample size? Sure. But this team is 5-16 in September. Sometimes you have to roll the dice, and you never know if his speed at the top of the lineup could impact the game, be it in giving Gonzalez a mistake pitch, or scoring from first with 2 outs.
Either way, it seems like it's the right play for this situation