Red Sox vs. Indians Lineups: Ice Cold vs. Red Hot

The Red Sox are coming off two extremely frustrating losses to the Angels to end this past weekend and will look to put it behind them this week in Cleveland. The good news is that, for whatever reason, the Red Sox have been much better on the road than at home this year. The bad news is that the Indians are among the hottest teams in baseball with a pitching staff that leaves very little margin for error for their opponents to play with. With Boston needing as much room for mistakes as humanly possible over the last few weeks, it seems like that could be bad!

For this first game the Sox will send Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound. The lefty has largely been solid this year and has specifically been better about pitching efficiently and deep into games. However, he has ventured off that path of late by falling into old, nibbling habits. He’s going to have a tough time against a much-improved Indians lineup that features recent MVP candidates in Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez as well as a resurgent Carlos Santana and powerful Franmil Reyes. One bit of good news is that Rodriguez, as well as the rest of the Red Sox pitching staff, will not have to deal with Yasiel Puig. The newly-acquired Cleveland outfielder is serving his three-game suspension he incurred following a brawl during his final moments with the Reds.

On the other side, the Red Sox are going up against a rookie in Zach Plesac who shut them down earlier in the year. The righty has peripherals that suggest regression is in his future, but that sort of thing isn’t as predictive on a game-to-game basis as we’d like it to be. To face off against Plesac the Red Sox are sending out a typical vs. RHP lineup. All of the regulars are in the lineup at the top and they’ll have Mitch Moreland at first with Brock Holt at second.

The full lineups are below.