The Boston Red Sox will aim to avoid a sweep against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night and will do so without two of their stars in the lineup.
Nick Pivetta will get the nod for Boston with a chance to secure his 10th win of the season and get back to a .500 record. The right-hander has struggled mightily against American League East foe this season, a trend that carried into his previous start against the Rays, in which he allowed five runs in as many innings.
The Rays will deploy former Red Sox Jeffrey Springs, a left-hander who has been fantastic this season. Springs has quite favorable metrics but his 96th percentile chase rate is the top area of concern for an overly aggressive Red Sox lineup.
Said lineup will be without two fixtures, Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts. Devers will be replaced by Christian Arroyo at third base and will bat sixth. Manager Alex Cora has emphasized getting regulars off their feet when playing on turf fields.
The other notable change comes at shortstop. Bogaerts is sitting out after leaving Tuesday's game with back spasms, an injury that has plagued him the entire second half of the season. In his place defensively will be Kiké Hernández, who will lead off for Boston. Rob Refsynder will take Hernández's typical center field spot to complete the merry-go-round of changes. Rookies Triston Casas and Connor Wong will get some more action at the big league level as well, batting eighth and ninth respectively.
You can watch Wednesday's game between the Red Sox and Rays with NESN 360. First pitch from Tropicana Field is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET, following an hour of pregame coverage.
Check out the full Red Sox vs. Rays lineups below.
RED SOX (67-70)
Kiké Hernández, SS
Tommy Pham, LF
Alex Verdugo, RF
Trevor Story, 2B
J.D. Martinez, DH
Christian Arroyo, 3B
Rob Refsnyder, CF
Triston Casas, 1B
Connor Wong, C
Nick Pivetta, RHP (9-10, 4.37 ERA)
RAYS (76-58)
Yandy DÃaz, 3B
Brandon Lowe, 2B
Harold RamÃrez, DH
Randy Arozarena, RF
David Peralta, LF
Manuel Margot, CF
Francisco Mejia, C
Ji-Man Choi, 1B
Taylor Walls, SS
Jeffrey Springs, LHP (7-4, 2.62 ERA)
