Red Sox at Blue Jays lineups: Slump busted, hopefully for good

The Red Sox, fresh off an old-fashioned beat-down of the Blue Jays, one that featured Jarren Duran’s first home run, look to run back the whole shebang when Garrett Richards squares off with Thomas Hatch tonight in Buffalo, New York (7:07 p.m., NESN).

That’s right, folks: It’s Richards vs. Hatch. The matchup people will talk about for decades. LOL/JK of course, as Hatch is the surprise starter after rookie phenom Alek Manoah hurt himself slipping on the dugout steps. These things happen! Anyhow, Hatch will be making his MLB debut, good for him, while Richards will look to keep his increasingly tenuous hold on a rotation spot with Tanner Houck in the building and Chris Sale starting in Portland tonight. At least one guy has to go, and right now it looks like Richards is the likely odd guy out. But that’s tomorrow. Tonight, he can still go do the thing. It’s all any of can do, really. The thing. Let’s do the thing.

The funky new-look lineup is back and largely the same, with Duran batting second and Alex Verdugo batting sixth. The Blue Jays have nine players in their batting order, tying an MLB record. We love to see records tied or broken, don’t we folks? Anyhow, here are the full lineups: