Coming off of Tuesday night's poor showing with runners in scoring position, suffice to say the Red Sox will be looking for more from their starting lineup on Wednesday.
Boston better hope they improve, too, because this is a series that the Red Sox cannot afford to lose if they have any last-ditch ambitions of making a playoff run. With the Yankees up next, if the Sox don't start winning games in large chunks immediately, then it will be a third straight October without playoff baseball in Boston.
To do that, the Red Sox will trot out largely the same lineup they've featured lately, with the speed of Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Dustin Pedroia leading things off and Adrian Gonzalez and Cody Ross following to drive them in.
Aside from that, Scott Podsednik is back in the lineup for the second time since returning to the Sox just last week, and he'll be in right field on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Nick Punto takes over at third base for the day, meaning Pedro Ciriaco, Ryan Lavarnway and Danny Valencia are all riding the pine — at least to start the game.
Check out the lineups for both teams, below:
Red Sox
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Carl Crawford, LF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Cody Ross, DH
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Mike Aviles, SS
Scott Podsednik, RF
Nick Punto, 3B
Aaron Cook, RHP
Orioles
Nick Markakis, RF
J.J. Hardy, SS
Nate McLouth, LF
Adam Jones, CF
Matt Wieters, C
Chris Davis, DH
Mark Reynolds, 1B
Manny Machado, 3B
Omar Quintanilla, 2B
Miguel Gonzalez, RHP
