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One of Spring Training’s charms is that people aren’t overly serious about it. Mike Napoli just signed a minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians that Buster Olney said was more or less a chance for him to audition for other teams — a nice move by Terry Francona and co. to let Nap keep playing. Russell Wilson is in camp for the Yankees, taking batting practice. And today, Tate Matheny will bad leadoff against the Cardinals, and his father, Mike, the manager of St. Louis, today at 1:05 p.m. in Jupiter, Fla. (MLB Network will televise it.)
Matheny is 24 and no longer a real major league prospect, but that’s not the point. Tate’s a dad, and three generations of Mathenys will be in the building this afternoon:
Red Sox send Tate Matheny out with the lineup card to meet his father, #Cardinals mgr Mike Matheny. First game they've been together with Tate's son in the stands. "Three generations," Mike said, beaming. #MLB
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) February 27, 2018
I despise the Cardinals in general and have no great love for Matheny, but it’s March 2nd, and I’ll choose to have a heart today. This is cool. And bestill that very heart, it’s the return of Drew Pomeranz! Pom Wonderful will make his winter debut today, hoping to piggyback on a wonderful 2017 during which he became Rick Porcello and vice-versa. A lot is riding on Drew again, and hopefully he can handle it. He’s sure got the stuff.
Speaking of stuff, I got the good stuff — the lineup — coming up after the daily reminder that this is your gamethread. Go nuts, folks:
- Tate Matheny, DH
- Andrew Benintendi, LF
- Rafael Devers, 3B
- Blake Swihart, C
- Sam Travis, 1B
- Rusney Castillo, RF
- Deven Marrero, SS
- Esteban Quiroz, 2B
- Aneury Tavarez, CF
SP: Drew Pomeranz, LHP