The Red Sox (58-29) play their second morning game of the year when they face the Nationals (42-42) today behind Eduardo Rodriguez (9-3, 4.11 ERA) in Washington, D.C. (11:05 a.m., NESN, MLBN out-of-network).

About today’s game: E-Rod, who has been on one of his down streaks, will square off against someone named Erick Fedde (1-3, 6.00 ERA) — morning games are weird, man. Fedde’s a 25-year-old righty who has gotten pounded this year, so hopefully that continues. More importantly, it’s time for a good game from Rodriguez, and the heavily Nats lineup should help just as it did for Brian Johnson yesterday.

In other news, Tyler Thornburg’s here, finally! A full season and a half after coming over the organization, he’s finally in uniform and ready to go. That’s not the only strange thing about today, though. Andrew Benintendi sits, as do Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland, with Brock Holt playing shortstop and batting second and Steve Pearce playing first and batting cleanup. Christan Vázquez gets the start behind the plate.

About yesterday’s game: J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts led an offensive explosion over pornstached starter Tanner Roark as the Sox cruised to an 11-4 victory. Read Matt’s beatific recap here.

Forecast: A cold front sweeps through the nation’s capital this morning, as the gametime temperature is expected to be a mere 85 degrees.

Today’s reading: In light of J.D.’s everlasting asskickingness, I’m going to re-up Michelle Berthiaume’s piece on how he’s the new leader in the clubhouse.

A good tweet from yesterday about Washington’s weather:

LINEUPS