/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59173623/usa_today_10740617.0.jpg)
Just 51 hours and 5 minutes from the start of today’s final preseason game against the Cubs (1:05 p.m., NESN/ESPN), the Red Sox will face the Tampa Bay Rays to start the 2018 season. Doing the regular season lineups is cumbersome and time-consuming, but spring training lineups are much easier and don’t matter, so I’m going to half-ass it one last time before I have to do that. Hector Velazquez — the righty I always think is a lefty — gets a final tuneup, J.D. Martinez is in the second spot again, this is the gamethread, here is the lineup, and see you on the extremely welcome flip side:
- Mookie Betts, RF
- J.D. Martinez, DH
- Eduardo Nunez, 2B
- Andrew Benintendi, LF
- Mitch Moreland, 1B
- Christian Vazquez, C
- Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
- Ivan De Jesus, 3B
- Brock Holt, SS
SP: Velazquez, RHP