Red Sox vs. Astros lineup: When it rains, it pours

The Red Sox’s bats came alive yesterday in the nick of time, staving off elimination with some old-fashioned Boston baseball. Today, weather permitting, they look to run it back against an Astros team that probably though it was headed to the ALCS after another three-run first inning.

The game is scheduled for 1:08 p.m., but Mother Nature isn’t necessarily on the same page, with showers schedule well through the afternoon. Maybe that’s a good thing for reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello, who will get today’s start. He’s been pounded in the first inning as often as anyone on the team, but if the first inning is hours later than expected, maybe he’ll be fine by the real first pitch. If he isn’t, of course, all hands (minus those of the season-saving David Price) will once again be on deck.

Charlie Morton, who started the final game of the regular season against the Sox, will get the ball today with the goal of preventing a return trip to Houston for game five. He’ll face a lineup that has flopped Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts at the top of the order and swapped in Christian Vazquez but is otherwise unchanged from yesterday. The Astros run back their lineup with the only change being Evan Gattis swapping into the DH spot for Carlos Beltran.

Nothing’s over until we say it is. Here are the full lineups: