Red Sox vs. Twins Lineups: Nathan Eovaldi looks to keep building

The Red Sox took a must-win game on Wednesday night, with Mookie Betts’ two homers being the big story. They got the early offense they needed, which was great, but it’s also impossible to ignore the performance from Eduardo Rodriguez. Starting pitching has undeniably been this team’s downfall, particularly with respect to their shockingly lackluster record at Fenway Park. Rodriguez showed up in a big way against one of the best lineups in the game, and that predictably led to a win.

The Red Sox are going to need a big start from Nathan Eovaldi on Thursday if they are going to grab the much-needed series victory. As we’ve said countless times over the last week or so, this team needs to win just about every series the rest of the way. Starting this month with a series loss would be a huge blow, and they need good starting pitching to do it. For as helpful as it could be to have 475 relievers in the bullpen, it doesn’t matter all that much if the team falls behind 5-0 in two or three innings.

Fortunately, Eovaldi is coming off his best performance since coming off the IL when he struck out eight in four innings against the Angels. This Twins lineup is obviously a different beast, but Eovaldi should have a little extra confidence this time out after his last start. The key for him is going to be command and control, as always. He’s going to give up some hard contact here and there, and likely a home run even if things go well. That’s just baseball in 2019, particularly against the Twins. As long as the damage comes with no one on base, that should be enough for this Red Sox offense. If he’s walking a bunch of guys on top of the hard contact, it will be a long night.

and they have to take advantage. They’ll have Sam Travis at first and Gorkys Hernández in center against the southpaw, with an otherwise normal group.

The full lineups are below: