Red Sox at Rays Lineups: Nathan Eovaldi returns

The Red Sox got off to a strong start for their four-game set down in Tampa, winning a close one against the Rays on Thursday. They came back last night, though, and were on the wrong end of a blowout to even up the series. The Red Sox don’t have much to play for at this point beyond personal pride, but the players still want to win series, particularly against division rivals. To ensure at least a split in this one, they’ll need a win tonight.

The good news on that front is they get their best pitcher back in Nathan Eovaldi. The righty has been out since the middle of August with what was originally described as a calf cramp. It turned out to be a bit worse than they thought and, logically, they didn’t want to push him too hard. Things are looking good now, and he’ll take the mound against his former team tonight. Don’t expect to see too many innings out of him since he’s been out for a few weeks now, but it’ll be nice to at least see what his stuff looks like down the stretch. To make room for Eovaldi the team optioned Matt Hall back down to the Alternate Site.

On the other side, the Red Sox are going up against Tyler Glasnow. The Rays righty has some of the best strikeout stuff in all of baseball, but can also struggle with his command. The Red Sox batters would be wise to show some patience in this one. They’ll have most of the normal crew out there in the battle, with Bobby Dalbec getting the day off at first in favor of Michael Chavis, Christian Arroyo heading back out at second, and Yairo Muñoz manning left.