Red Sox vs. Mariners lineups: Roenis Elias gets his chance

Chris Young is back in the lineup as the Red Sox turn to Chris Young in hopes that someone--anyone--can give them a quality start or two out of the back-end of the rotation.

The Red Sox are not feeling great right now. Eduardo Rodriguez looks a mess, Rick Porcello is falling off, they can't seem to beat their division competition, and it's left them treading water at best over more than a month now.

They need something to pick them up. They hope Roenis Elias can be that something.

To be clear, this is not the Sox going in search of a miracle. There's no expectation that Elias will pull a Steven Wright and just utterly destroy the American League. They're only really looking for mediocre. That's all they ask for! Not brilliance. Simply not disaster. Even if they get that, it's kind of hard to really claim they've got a five-man rotation set given the Rodriguez situation. But at least they won't be looking at three.

Of course, what Elias does won't matter much if the Sox do what they did yesterday against Wilson. Perhaps to that end, they're tasking Sandy Leon with duties behind the plate again. They've certainly not pulled an easier opponent in Hisashi Iwakuma. His numbers aren't quite what they have been in years gone by, but he's a good pitcher and headed in the right direction if you assume that some of his massive surge of home run troubles are fluky. Not an easy opponent for a Red Sox team in serious need of a win.

First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.