Jackie Bradley Jr. is out of the lineup, and off on paternity leave for the birth of his first child, leavin Chris Young to man center as Eduardo Rodriguez makes his return to the rotation.
Well, it's not the series we'd all hope Bradley would miss, but shockingly enough the life cycle was not particularly interested in far more important things like baseball schedules and playoff races. Some day the university will get its priorities in order and sure, huge portions of the country might die off to droughts but there damn sure won't be any rain delays!
(In all seriousness, though, congratulations to Jackie and Erin!)
For now, the real attention is on the mound, anyways. Win or lose, Red Sox fans just want to see Eduardo Rodriguez pitch well today. They spent the beginning of the year living with what amounted to a two-man rotation, with David Price only finally providing a third in recent weeks. Boston would desperately love to see a fourth starter locked in, and Rodriguez was always supposed to be that guy. But he's not going to be in mid-season form just yet, and until he's really faced major league lineups, it's going to be hard to really trust how close to his 2015 self he is.
First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.