Red Sox vs. Rays Lineups: Sox offense looks to build off yesterday’s late-game rally

Thursday afternoon’s makeup game looked like it was going to be yet another frustrating early-season game for this Red Sox lineup, at least until the eighth inning rolled around. They were able to string together a few base runners and then Hanley Ramirez came through with the big hit to tie the game. Eventually, as we know, they’d pull ahead and shut the door in the ninth.

On Friday, they’ll look to start off their series against the Rays with a little more offense. Thus far in the young season, we haven’t really seen any power from this lineup that has plenty of potential for it. While it’s not yet close to panic time about this particular issue, none of us would complain if they got going in the right direction tonight.

This marks the best pitching matchup we’re going to see all weekend. Rick Porcello will take the hill for the Red Sox, hoping for his first dominant start of the year. The Rays lineup has some talent, but overall it’s a group that can be taken advantage of. Unfortunately, they are going to be sending Chris Archer to the mound. Despite his relatively down year in 2016, he is still one of the most talented pitchers in all of baseball and is more than capable of shutting down any lineup in the league. Let’s hope for some runs, or even just deep counts, early and often.

Here are the full lineups:

First pitch at Fenway will be at 7:10 PM ET.