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The Red Sox (29-24) look to surmount the perpetual stumbling blocks that are Buck Showalter’s Orioles (28-24) when they play the second game of a four-game set tonight in Baltimore (7:05 p.m., NESN). The winner of tonight’s game will finish alone in second place in the AL East, at least until tomorrow.
Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello (4.21 ERA), he of the abnormally high .370 BABIP, gets the nod for Boston. Our own Matt Collins dug into Porcello’s numbers early today in an effort to see why he’s been giving up so many hits. His conclusions? He’s been working too much in the zone and not enough around the edges, and he’s been dodgy with the curveball. Matt’s analysis is worth reading in full.
Alec Asher (3.77 ERA) starts for Baltimore. If he switched between catchers, would they be called AA batteries? Sorry, sorry, I’m trying to remove it. Here are the full lineups:
Game 54, June 2, 2017 at Orioles
| Lineup Spot | Red Sox | Orioles |
|---|---|---|
| Lineup Spot | Red Sox | Orioles |
| 1 | Mookie Betts, RF | Seth Smith, RF |
| 2 | Andrew Benintendi, LF | Adam Jones, CF |
| 3 | Xander Bogaerts, SS | Manny Machado, 3B |
| 4 | Mitch Moreland, 1B | Mark Trumbo, DH |
| 5 | Hanley Ramirez, DH | Chris Davis, 1B |
| 6 | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF | Jonathan Schoop, 2B |
| 7 | Josh Rutledge, 2B | Hyun Soo Kim, LF |
| 8 | Pablo Sandoval, 3B | J.J. Hardy, SS |
| 9 | Sandy Leon, C | Caleb Joseph, C |
| SP | Rick Porcello, RHP | Alec Asher, RHP |