The Red Sox (103-47) look to officially win the American League East for the third straight season in the home of the rival Yankees (91-58) when they square off in soggy New York this evening (7:05 p.m., NESN, FB Watch, MLBN out-of-network). Here’s the series preview.

About tonight's game: It’s matchup of midseason acquisitions on the mound, as talented, inconsistent Nathan Eovaldi (5-7, 4.22 ERA) takes on ageless lefty J.A. Happ (16-6, 3.75 ERA) on what’s sure to be a wet field, not that it would dampen the party. The team has loftier goals than winning the division, of course, but celebrating in front of the Yankees would — will, eventually — be delicious, even if it’s just an appetizer.

This appetizer will see the return of Yankee right fielder Aaron Judge to the second spot in their starting lineup and new Yankee left fielder Andrew McCutchen at the top of it. On the Sox side, I’m not sure what’s happening. Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi are both out, maybe just in an abundance of caution, but that wouldn’t necessarily explain J.D. Martinez in right field (except that it’s really small). Ian Kinsler leads off and Steve Pearce bats second. Everything else is sort of normal, except Brandon Phillips is at third base and Eduardo Núñez is DHing. Okay, maybe it’s not normal Brock Holt plays left. Sure.

Forecast: The rain fell afternoon and might continue in the evening, but might not. It’ll be a muggy 75 degrees out there either way.

Today’s reading: I wrote about properly gauging this team’s flaws in the context of the larger season, and why some beat reporters sometimes overstate them.

A good tweet left over from the weekend:

LINEUPS