Red Sox vs. Orioles lineups: Xander Bogaerts sits as Sox go for the sweep

The Red Sox have already done more than they needed to in Baltimore. All that's left is to put a true exclamation mark on a statement win behind David Price.

It's been a long time since we'd seen David Price looking as vulnerable as he did against New York, but there were extenuating circumstances to that game, making it awfully difficult to really hold that outing against him in any serious way. Unless he proves otherwise today--and given Baltimore's difficulties against lefties, he shouldn't--Price is still very much one half of the excellent 1-2 punch the Red Sox have at the top of their rotation for October.

Hey, if the Sox are going to start selling ALDS tickets, I'm going to start talking like they're going to the ALDS. Can hardly jinx it worse than that, right?

He'll go to the mound without Xander Bogaerts behind him, but...Well, I'm not sure how big a difference that makes. Bogaerts has recovered some from the horror that was August, but he's still hitting to just a .700 OPS in September, and there's no small chance that it has something to do with the fact that he's already at 679 plate appearances with 148 games played. Xander hasn't been getting much time off, to say the least.

Also noteworthy: Benintendi is still batting ninth, and Travis Shaw sixth. John Farrell has acknowledged that he's going to have to consider changing that given how well Benintendi is playing and Shaw's general struggles. One just wonders if a 6-and-9 swap is all we're going to see, or if Bogaerts' place in the lineup might shift too.

First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN, WEEI, and the MLB Network.