Red Sox vs. Rays Game 1 lineup: Let’s (watch them) play two!

The Red Sox (33-30) have two games planned against the demon Rays (38-23) this afternoon, the first of which, at 1:05 p.m., has an extremely “early game of a doubleheader” lineup from almost top to bottom. I say “almost” from the top because Mookie Betts is playing and leading off, but Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez are sitting to start the day, because it’s going to be very long and exhausting. Sam Travis starts in left, Christian Vázquez is at DH and Josh A. Smith is BACK for a spot start. They don’t tend to end well, but they often end early, if only for him. Sorry, pal. The Rays are gonna do the Rays thing until they have more players than fans, the “Rays thing” being beating us but really just more so annoying us and, to be fair, vice versa. I have no interest in reigniting the blog wars between the sites, because I implore us to focus instead on the Yankees, for the Good of us all. It’s just kinda hard today. See you in a few hours.