Xander Bogaerts will be on the bench Sunday afternoon as the Red Sox go for a series sweep of the Kansas City Royals.
We've been over the whole young player vs. Drew situation before. Multiple times, in fact. As such, I'll spare you all the repetition.
The other rookie missing out is Christian Vazquez, which is no surprise given the presence of Jon Lester on the mound and the day game after the night game. Astute observers will note that the Red Sox still could have gotten Vazquez another start in this series by having him play in game one, but there's something to be said for Farrell's usage of Ross as an example of the finer points of calling a game in the first game of a series. Where Bogaerts isn't necessarily going to gain much from watching games, Vazquez can benefit from seeing first and doing second.
Also absent is Mike Napoli, getting a fairly routine day game off against the right-handed Ventura in favor of Mike Carp.
First pitch is at 1:35 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN, TBS, and WEEI.