Red Sox vs. Yankees Lineups: They’re still playing baseball

The focus around the Red Sox right now is entirely on the future, in the short-, middle- and long-term. They just fired Dave Dombrowski, and now there are questions about who will take over as the new head of Baseball Operations as well as how they will deal with the Mookie Betts situation, among others, in the next couple years as well as how they can rebuild the farm system. It’s an awful lot which won’t be answered soon, but it’s really where all the attention lies right now.

And yet, amid all of that the Red Sox still have to play baseball games. Crazy, right? Certainly not my idea! Boston sits with less than a one percent chance to make the postseason according to Fangraphs, and I could quote Dumb and Dumber at you or I could just say there are still reasons to watch. Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, among others, are rad as hell. Eduardo Rodriguez’ rise has been cool. There are still questions about who can be kept for next year’s bullpen and in what roles. Opponents have neat baseball players as well. Baseball is a sport we enjoy watching and we should watch as much as we can. You know, the normal stuff.

Anyway, the Red Sox are playing the Yankees today in a game that doesn’t really matter but in the grand scheme of life none of these games matter so what’s the difference. In tonight’s meaningless game they have the aforementioned Rodriguez on the mound while the Yankees send James Paxton out for the start. At the plate, Andrew Benintendi is getting the day off with Gorkys Hernández getting the start against the southpaw.

The full lineups are below: