Red Sox vs. Athletics lineups: Still Moncada, still no Shaw

The Red Sox are looking for an emphatic sweep of their season series against the Athletics Sunday afternoon in Oakland.

Shaw missing one game in favor of Yoan Moncada showed that Moncada was at least part of a third-base rotation. A second straight start for Moncada over Shaw right off the bat and right after Shaw's big game on Friday suggests that he might also be the primary player in that rotation--perhaps even the starter.

The immediate returns from Moncada have thus far been...well, about what you might expect. He picked up a couple of hits in his first start, has a walk from his first plate appearance, and three of his other four at-bats have resulted in strikeouts. The production won't continue at that level if the strikeouts do as well, and we should certainly expect a fair few of those early in his career. But we shouldn't expect two-of-three balls in play to go for hits any more than we should expect three-sevenths of his at bats to result in strikeouts. The number will probably be high, just not that high. And if it is...well, Shaw will probably get his job back in the immediate while the Sox give Moncada what time he needs.

More important than who's at third right now, though, is what the Red Sox get from their starting pitcher today. Eduardo Rodriguez, like Steven Wright before him, struggled mightily in his first start back from injury. Wright is already set to miss his next start, with Clay Buchholz taking over for him. The Sox would really like to have Rodriguez look like the pitcher who allowed eleven runs total in his last seven starts leading up to that messy outing. Especially since they don't really have a great backup option until Wright is ready.

First pitch is at 4:05 p.m. with broadcasts on NESN and WEEI.