Red Sox at Rays lineups: One for the road?

It hasn’t been the most fruitful weekend for everyone’s favorite baseball franchise, but the Sox can nevertheless reclaim first place with a win over the Rays tonight behind Nick Pivetta (7:08 p.m., ESPN).

Correlation doesn’t (necessarily) equal causation, but the two losses to Tampa Bay immediately following a meek showing at the trade deadline has left a bad taste in the mouth of Red Sox Nation, especially on Twitter, where we’re hardly happy in the best of times. Not that Chaim Bloom is going to sweat over one series, though a loss tonight would make four straight and perhaps puncture the veneer of what appears to be a slightly self-satisfied front office.

Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that. If the onus of the moment is on Pivetta’s shoulders against the impressive rookie Shane McLanahan, it’s at least representative of how we got here (a bunch of castoff starters) and where we want to go (in McLanahan, a bona fide homegrown stud).

Being that everything is weird this weekend, J.D. Martinez is playing in the field and Kevin Plawecki gets the Sunday start… at DH. Let’s hope it’s with staying up for, or tomorrow’s off-day is going to be a long one.