clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Red Sox at Dodgers World Series Game 4 lineup: Wake up the bats. Let Eovaldi sleep.

Beni’s back in the starting lineup, E-Rod’s is on the mound, everyone’s exhausted and the game time temperature is gonna be 69 degrees. Nice.

MLB: World Series-Boston Red Sox at Los Angeles Dodgers Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Well shit. The Red Sox can erase the sting of this morning’s crushing Game 3 loss with a win behind Eduardo Rodriguez (13-5, 3.82 ERA) & Co. tonight in Los Angeles (8:09 p.m., FOX).

About Game 4: Game 4 of the World Series is when things start getting desperate on both sides in the best of circumstances, leastwise after the longest game in postseason history. E-Rod will start and presumably go until his arm falls off, at which point another pitcher will do the same, and they’ll try to patch things together like that and hope Chris Sale can take care of Game 5. Sox legend Rich Hill (11-5, 3.66 ERA) starts for the Dodgers.

Andrew Benintendi is back in the starting lineup, which means Jackie Bradley Jr.’s out of it, and Mookie Betts is in center. Steve Pearce is at first against the lefty. Amazingly, Eduardo Núñez is starting at third after last night’s odyssey, because life is fantastic. Brock Holt’s at second, and Christian Vázquez is behind the plate.

On the Dodgers side, it looks like Dave Roberts has ditched the all righty approach that went, well, like this:

Now Max Muncy is hitting second against a lefty, with Cody Bellinger also in the lineup. Roberts would probably say he has no idea how long E-Rod will go, hence the strategy change, and he wouldn’t be lying... but Roberts also learned his lesson, methinks, about [checks notes] playing your best players in the World Series. Too bad imho.

About Game 3: Boo. The Nathan Eovaldi Medal of Honor game ended in the 18th inning, 3-2, on a Max Muncy homer after a botched 13th inning grounder to Ian Kinsler cost the Sox a win. It sucked!

Forecast: Baseball, never ending, until the end of time, with Eovaldi on the mound. But since baseball has a sense of humor, it’s gonna be 69 degrees at game time.

Today’s reading: We’re on to Game 4.

A good tweet:

LINEUPS

World Series Game 4 at Dodgers

Lineup spot Red Sox Dodgers
Lineup spot Red Sox Dodgers
1 Mookie Betts, CF David Freese, 1B
2 Andrew Benintendi, LF Max Muncy, 2B
3 Steve Pearce, 1B Justin Turner, 3B
4 J.D. Martinez, RF Manny Machado, SS
5 Xander Bogaerts, SS Cody Bellinger, CF
6 Eduardo Núñez, 3B Yasiel Puig, RF
7 Brock Holt, 2B Chris Taylor, LF
8 Christian Vázquez, C Austin Barnes, C
9 Eduardo Rodriguez, P Rich Hill, P
SP Eduardo Rodriguez, LHP Rich Hill, LHP