Jacoby Ellsbury is missing from Boston's lineup Tuesday night as the Red Sox try to bounce back from a frustrating Labor Day loss to the Tigers.
Boston Red Sox (82-57)
- Shane Victorino, CF
- Daniel Nava, RF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Mike Carp, 1B
- Jonny Gomes, LF
- Stephen Drew, SS
- David Ross, C
- Will Middlebrooks, 3B
Detroit Tigers (81-57)
- Austin Jackson, CF
- Torii Hunter, RF
- Miguel Cabrera, 3B
- Prince Fielder, 1B
- Victor Martinez, DH
- Omar Infante, 2B
- Matt Tuiasosopo, LF
- Brayan Pena, C
- Jose Iglesias, SS
Starting Pitcher -- Max Scherzer
With rosters expanded, this is where you might expect to see Jackie Bradley Jr. getting the call to keep us from dealing with such awkward situations as Daniel Nava attempting to transition from the smallest left field in the game to one of the biggest right fields. One wonders if some of the reason the Sox are willing to deal with that doesn't stem from Jonny Gomes' weirdly even splits this year, since otherwise it would seem an awful hit to take on defense and offense vs. the right-handed Scherzer.
Speaking of, yeah, it's Scherzer time. Which sucks for those of us who like to see the Red Sox score runs. Scherzer was touched up in his last outing against Oakland, but on the whole it's hard to expect much on any given day when facing someone who has emerged as one of the league's top arms. Jon Lester has certainly been good lately, but he faces a tall task in matching Scherzer.