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The Red Sox look to stay atop the AL East when they face the hard-charging Blue Jays tonight in Dunedin, Florida.
The Sox, coming off their worst game in weeks, send Garrett Richards to the mound as they hold onto the top spot in the division for dear life. The rest of the division as always coming, and now they are here. Or we are there. Everyone’s in the same spot, more or less, figuratively (top of shelf) and literally (somewhere in Florida).
The venerable Ross Stripling starts for “Toronto,” like yesterday’s starter, having traded Dodger blue for the Blue of the Jay. Some lowercase-b Blue Jays have made a nest in the tree right by my house and I’m excited to some baby birds. Who cares? The guy getting to 150 words, that’s who!
Very little to report on the lineup front, other than Kiké Hernandez is in center field and Alex Verdugo is in right. They are who you think they are.
Game 44 at Blue Jays
| Lineup spot | Red Sox | Blue Jays |
|---|---|---|
| Lineup spot | Red Sox | Blue Jays |
| 1 | Kiké Hernández, CF | Marcus Semien, 2B |
| 2 | Alex Verdugo, RF | Bo Bichette, SS |
| 3 | J.D. Martinez, DH | Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B |
| 4 | Xander Bogaerts, SS | Teoscar Hernández, RF |
| 5 | Rafael Devers, 3B | Randal Grichuk, DH |
| 6 | Christian Vázquez, C | Lourdes Gurriel Jr., LF |
| 7 | Marwin Gonzalez, 2B | Cavan Biggio, 3B |
| 8 | Bobby Dalbec, 1B | Jonathan Davis, CF |
| 9 | Franchy Cordero, LF | Reese McGuire, C |
| SP | Garrett Richards, RHP | Ross Stripling, RHP |