Red Sox vs. Yankees Lineups: Finish it off with a Sale Day

Heading into this four-game set against the Yankees at Fenway, fans were somewhat pessimistic. That includes myself, for whatever that’s worth. (Not much!) Given the way the season as a whole had unfolded to that point, the dominant force New York had been pretty much all year and they way they had handled Boston in all of their meetings prior to this series, a split seemed like the best case scenario. Many, if not most, at least had a fear in the back of our minds that the Yankees would take all four games, essentially finish off the division and possibly turn the Red Sox to the sellers market at the trade deadline.

Well, that was all very dumb! Instead, the Red Sox have played arguably their best baseball of the year during the last three games, absolutely handling the Yankees in each game of the series. The starting pitching has been solid, the bullpen has been okay and the offense has been otherworldly. All of that leads to a chance for the Red Sox to finish off a downright shocking sweep if they can get a victory on Sunday Night Baseball.

As they try to pull this one off, they’ll have Chris Sale on the mound. It’s been a tough year for the Red Sox ace, but he has certainly appeared to have turned things around in his last couple starts. Against the Blue Jays and Rays, the southpaw has allowed a total of two runs over twelve innings with 22 strikeouts and five walks. This will be a real test for Sale against an extremely talented Yankees lineup with something to prove.

On the other end, the Red Sox are looking to do more of the same. They’ve been getting contributions up and down the lineup, but in this series and really over the last week it’s been the top four guys of Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez. Those four occupy the top of the lineup once again on Sunday, with a standard lefty-heavy lineup to face righty Domingo Germán. That means Brock Holt is at second and Mitch Moreland is at first. Sandy León plays behind the plate with Sale on the mound.

The full lineups are below.