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Red Sox vs. Yankees: Doom, gloom, and all their friends

Times are dark in Fenway Park, but they'll try to play some baseball all the same.

By Ben Buchanan
Jared Wickerham

Fresh off a demoralizing 9-2 blowout, there's nothing for the Red Sox but to get back on the horse and try again.

Can't you just taste the excitement? No? Oh...

Today's Lineups

NEW YORK YANKEES BOSTON RED SOX
Jacoby Ellsbury - CF Grady Sizemore - RF
Derek Jeter - SS Dustin Pedroia - 2B
Carlos Beltran - DH David Ortiz - DH
Brian McCann - C Mike Napoli - 1B
Alfonso Soriano - LF Mike Carp - LF
Mark Teixeira - 1B A.J. Pierzynski - C
Brett Gardner - RF Xander Bogaerts - SS
Brian Roberts - 2B Brock Holt - 3B
Kelly Johnson - 3B Jackie Bradley - CF
Michael Pineda - RHP John Lackey - RHP

With Daniel Nava back in Pawtucket, Mike Carp will get a start manning left field. Neither Nava nor Gomes are particularly adept fielders, but they both developed a level of familiarity with Fenway's left field that Carp hasn't exactly shown in his time out there. Not the greatest addition to a defense that's already well below the realm of respectability.

Meanwhile Grady Sizemore continues to bat leadoff with his .269 OBP while Xander Bogaerts' .400 figure wastes away beneath Sizemore, Carp, and Pierzynski alike.

None of this, though, is really all that important in the face of the bigger picture. If the Red Sox were playing well, poor lineup construction and a bad defender in left field would not be enough to turn many wins into losses at all. But they're not. There are larger problems to be solved in Fenway Park, though not optimizing the troubled team we do have to work with certainly doesn't help.

First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. EST with broadcast on NESN, ESPN, and WEEI.

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