The Red Sox have set their American League Division Series roster.
Boston will begin its best-of-five set against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, and the Red Sox released their 26-man group the morning of Game 1 at Tropicana Field.
Here’s the full roster:
Pitchers: Ryan Brasier, Austin Davis, Nathan Eovaldi, Tanner Houck, Adam Ottavino, MartÃn Pérez, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Richards, Hansel Robles, Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Sale, Josh Taylor, Garrett Whitlock
Catchers: Kevin Plawecki, Christian VázquezÂ
Infielders: Christian Arroyo, Xander Bogaerts, Bobby Dalbec, Rafael Devers, Travis Shaw
Outfielders: J.D. Martinez, Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Schwarber, Alex Verdugo
Infielder/Outfielders: Kiké Hernández, Danny Santana
The most notable inclusion is Martinez, who missed the American League Wild Card Game victory over the New York Yankees with a sprained ankle. He tested it out Wednesday and was going to be reevaluated Thursday morning, so the Red Sox must have liked what they saw enough to trust that he will be able to play at some point in the series.
Sale, obviously, returns after being omitted from the wild-card roster since he wasn’t going to be used Tuesday night against the Yankees.
The Red Sox went pitcher-heavy with their wild-card roster, so some position players were left off. In short, the Red Sox added Sale, Martinez, Pérez and Santana, while Matt Barnes, Jonathan Araúz, Connor Wong and Jarren Duran were removed.
Hirokazu Sawamura and Darwinzon Hernandez still are not on the roster. They were left off the wild-card roster, as well.
Game 1 of Red Sox-Rays is set for Thursday at 8:07 p.m. ET. The game will air on FS1, but NESN will have an hour of pregame coverage starting at 7 p.m. ET, plus an hour of postgame coverage immediately following the final out.
