Red Sox at A’s lineups: Number 9? Number 9?

The Red Sox look for their nine straight win tonight (it’s the afternoon in California, the cheaters) behind the struggling Garrett Richards (7:15 p.m., FOX).

If anything can slow down these Sox, it’s Richards, who has largely struggled since the league-wide crackdown on Spider-Tack and whatnot, but did manage to figure some stuff out last start that could help him today. Basically he’s relearning to pitch on the fly, which is quite a thing for a major leaguer to do, and it would be incredibly impressive if he was able to do it successfully. I’m rooting for him, but Tanner Houck and Chris Sale are waiting in the wings if things go south.

Cole Irvin, a lefty with a 3.64 ERA, starts for Oakland, and J.D. Martinez is back to face him. Somewhat surprisingly imho, no Sox regular has a day off to follow up. Whatever. Here ate the full lineups: