Red Sox at Pirates lineups: The last fake Saturday, still in COVID’s shadow

The Red Sox and Pirates do battle, such as it is, for the last time in March and in spring training when they face off in Bradenton, Florida at 1:05 p.m. for a 7-inning game.

Matt wrote yesterday about how we have entered the “let’s get on with it” portion of the preseason, and nothing drives that quite like a game against Pittsburgh, whose reputation precedes it. That said, after rolling out a sorry lineup yesterday, the Sox have the regulars back in, minus Christian Vázquez, who is away from the team, and Xander Bogaerts. Now Matt Barnes has COVID and Matt Andriese, who was going to start, is out because of contact tracing. The virus didn’t take spring break, apparently. Anyhow the Pirates lineup came out very late, so here’s the damage:

Red Sox lineup

1. Kiké Hernández (R) LF

2. Alex Verdugo (L) CF

3. J.D. Martinez (R) DH

4. Rafael Devers (L) 3B

5. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF

6. Marwin Gonzalez (S) SS

7. Bobby Dalbec (R) 1B

8. Christian Arroyo (R) 2B

9. Kevin Plawecki (R) C

SP: Andrew Politi, RHP

Pirates lineup

1. Kevin Newman (R) SS

2. Ke’Bryan Hayes (R) 3B

3. Bryan Reynolds (S) LF

4. Gregory Polanco (L) RF

5. Phillip Evans (R) 1B

6. Erik Gonzalez (R) 2B

7. Michael Pérez (L) C

8. Anthony Alford (R) CF

9. Chad Kuhl (R) P

SP: Chad Kuhl, RHP