The Red Sox take on the Twins for their game on Thursday, and there’s a pretty big name at the very top of their lineup. Dustin Pedroia, who played all of three games in 2018, is going to be hitting leadoff for the Red Sox for his first game of 2019. After sitting out essentially all of last year, nobody really knows what to expect from the former MVP in the coming year. We’re not going to learn much in spring training, let alone in his first game of spring training, but it will still be nice to see him back on the field. Even if he’s in the same neighborhood as what he was before getting hurt, the Red Sox will be better off at second base than they were for most of last year.
Joining Pedroia in the lineup will be a whole lot of other regulars. In fact, the top seven should all be Opening Day starters, though Mitch Moreland could be subbed out for Steve Pearce. The two differences are that Brock Holt will be in left field with Andrew Benintendi getting the day off, and Blake Swihart starts behind the plate. Brian Johnson gets the start for Boston.
Here are the full lineups:
Red Sox at Twins, 3/22
Lineup Spot | Red Sox | Twins |
---|---|---|
Lineup Spot | Red Sox | Twins |
1 | Andrew Benintendi, LF | Max Kepler, RF |
2 | Eduardo Núñez, 2B | Jorge Polanco, SS |
3 | Rafael Devers, 3B | Nelson Cruz, DH |
4 | J.D. Martinez, DH | Eddie Rosario, LF |
5 | Xander Bogaerts, SS | C.J. Cron, 1B |
6 | Mitch Moreland, 1B | Marwin Gonzalez, 3B |
7 | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF | Jonathan Schoop, 2B |
8 | Christian Vázquez, C | Jason Castro, C |
9 | Gorkys Hernández, RF | Byron Buxton, CF |
SP | Dan Runzler, LHP | Kyle Gibson, RHP |
Thursday’s game will be Boston’s second consecutive contest aired on ESPN. There is not a NESN broadcast for the game. On the radio side, 850 AM WEEI will have the call. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 PM ET.