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The Red Sox are out to snap a short losing streak Sunday as they head to Tampa Bay's spring training home in Charlotte for a matinee against the Rays.
The bad news is that the lineup isn't looking as impressive as in the last couple of games. The good news is that the more filled-out lineups haven't done much in the way of scoring, while some of these patchwork groups have done a pretty good job at rounding the bases. Of course, it doesn't help that the former is the one you want scoring, while it's often tough to care about most of the players in the latter.
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Daniel Nava, LF
- Ryan Lavarnway, DH
- Ryan Sweeney, RF
- David Ross, C
- Lyle Overbay, 1B
- Drew Sutton, 3B
- Pedro Ciriaco, SS
If there's anything to be garnered from this lineup, it's that John Farrell does seem to like the old 1-2 of Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. We've seen a fair bit of that this spring, and not much in the way of Pedroia batting third. Given the (presumed) presence of Ortiz and Napoli as the big 3-4 combo, that seems the logical move.
Getting the start today is John Lackey who, with another good outing, could even be said to be on a roll. Alternatively, he could bomb utterly, and be right back to square one. Zero? Here's hoping he keeps moving forward rather than backwards.
The game will be televised starting at 1:00 on NESN, so we'll be game threading it up for those interested.