The Red Sox maintained their comfortable lead over the Rays with a 2-0 victory in the series opener on Monday, and they’ll look to increase that lead on Tuesday night.
Entering the second game of the series with an 8 1/2-game lead over the struggling Rays, Boston will turn to Ryan Dempster on the mound to get things done. Dempster is starting in place of Felix Doubront, who will skip his spot in the rotation due to the return of Clay Buchholz. The right-hander is coming off consecutive wins, with his last victory coming in Detroit as the Red Sox’ bats erupted for 20 runs.
David Ross will be the man behind the plate for Boston, and he will continue to see a significant amount of game action while he and Jarrod Saltalamacchia continue to alternate starts until Salty’s back is 100%.
In the absence of Jacoby Ellsbury, Jackie Bradly Jr. returns to the lineup and will bat ninth against Boston native Alex Cobb.
Check out the rest of the lineups below.
Red Sox (88-58)
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Shane Victorino, RF
David Ortiz, DH
Mike Napoli, 1B
Daniel Nava, LF
Stephen Drew, SS
Will Middlebrooks, 3B
David Ross, C
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
Ryan Dempster, RHP (8-9, 4.79 ERA)
Rays (78-65)
David DeJesus, LF
Wil Myers, RF
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Evan Longoria, 3B
Matt Joyce, DH
Desmond Jennings, CF
James Loney, 1B
Jose Lobaton, C
Yunel Escobar, SS
Alex Cobb, RHP (8-3, 2.99 ERA)
