The Boston Red Sox send James Paxton to the mound Wednesday night as they look to avoid a sweep to the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium.
Paxton, who earned his first win in the majors since 2020 in his last outing, will look to continue the trend of strong starting pitching the Red Sox have received in the series. The Angels counter with a lefty of their own, as Tyler Anderson will toe the rubber for the Halos.
With two lefties on the mound, both managers switched up their lineups and that could be beneficial to the Red Sox, who have scored just one run in their last three games. Alex Verdugo and the struggling Triston Casas will both get the night off while Rob Refsnyder, who is batting .354 with one home run and 12 RBIs off left-handed pitchers this season, is at the top of Alex Cora’s lineup card and will man left field. Justin Turner will get the start at first base in place of Casas.
While Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani — the only left-handed hitter in Los Angeles’ lineups — stay in their usual spots for the Angels, the Red Sox have to be pleased with not seeing Mickey Moniak in the order. Moniak hit a home run in each of the first two games of the series.
First pitch is scheduled for 9:38 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN. Here are the lineups for both teams.
BOSTON RED SOX (26-23)
Rob Refsnyder, LF
Justin Turner, 1B
Masataka Yoshida, DH
Rafael Devers, 3B
Kiké Hernández, SS
Pablo Reyes, 2B
Connor Wong, C
Raimel Tapia, RF
Jarren Duran, CF
James Paxton, LHP (1-0, 2.45 ERA)
LOS ANGELES ANGELS (27-23)
Taylor Ward, LF
Mike Trout, CF
Shohei Ohtani, DH
Hunter Renfroe, RF
Brandon Drury, 1B
Gio Urshela, 3B
Luis Rengifo, 2B
Chad Wallach, C
Zach Neto, SS
Tyler Anderson, LHP (1-0, 5.27 ERA)
