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Red Sox Opening Day lineup: Brock Holt, Travis Shaw start as expected

The lineup is set, and we're just hours away from the return of Red Sox baseball!

By Ben Buchanan
Elsa/Getty Images

Opening Day is here, and there are no surprises to be found in Boston's lineup against the Indians, as Brock Holt and Travis Shaw are both starting behind David Price, who is set to make his regular season debut with the Red Sox.

Boston Red Sox (0-0)

  1. Mookie Betts, RF
  2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
  3. Xander Bogaerts, SS
  4. David Ortiz, DH
  5. Hanley Ramirez, 1B
  6. Travis Shaw, 3B
  7. Brock Holt, LF
  8. Blake Swihart, C
  9. Jackie Bradley Jr., CF

Starting Pitcher -- David Price

Cleveland Indians (0-0)

  1. Rajai Davis, CF
  2. Jason Kipnis, 2B
  3. Francisco Lindor, SS
  4. Mike Napoli, 1B
  5. Carlos Santana, DH
  6. Yan Gomes, C
  7. Marlon Byrd, LF
  8. Juan Uribe, 3B
  9. Collin Cowgill, RF

Starting Pitcher -- Corey Kluber

From top to bottom, it's what most would have expected, at least after the news of Castillo and Sandoval being benched in favor of Holt and Shaw respectively. Xander Bogaerts batting third has been signaled for a long time now by John Farrell during spring training (to say nothing of his role in 2015), with everyone else slotting in from there. At most, there may have been some question on the order of Shaw and Holt, but given that Farrell is giving the third baseman credit for both his strong debut in 2015 and an excellent spring, that too seemed pretty obvious.

On the other side of things, we see old friend Mike Napoli slotting into Cleveland's cleanup spot. Napoli didn't exactly look the part in 2015, though he did manage a strong finish after joining Texas. Still, it remains to be seen whether Mike Napoli has anything left in the tank, or if that was just a 91 plate appearance blip on the radar.

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Really, these lineups draw some interesting parallels to one another. Strong starts up top with uncertainty growing as we approach the bottom. For the Red Sox, the uncertainty comes more from youth and a lack of experience, while the Indians are tied up in quite a few older players who may or may not be able to continue treading water. But on a day like today, with two Cy Young winners on the mound for a cold Opening Day, this game doesn't seem like an offensive shootout waiting to happen.

First pitch is at 4:10 p.m. EDT--though, let's be honest, all the pageantry will put it off for a bit--with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.

Baseball is back! For real this time!

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