Red Sox vs. Orioles lineups: Kyle Schwarber has arrived

The Red Sox, desperately needing a winning streak, face the cellar-dwelling Orioles tonight at Fenway Park behind Nick Pivetta (7:10 p.m., NESN).

So... the 20-run game was fun, but the euphoria short-lived, as the Rays punched the Sox down to five games back yesterday in a laugher. Fortunately the Yankees were owned to smithereens in the Field of Dreams game on a walk-off Tim Anderson home run, meaning the Bronx Bombers are 2 games back of Boston, with Toronto 2.5 games back, heading into tonight.

The Orioles are a sight for sore eyes, them being the Orioles and all, but they’re also a huge test for a Sox team that has largely been losing to other good teams. You gotta beat the little guys, and the Sox absolutely need to throw the hammer down in this series if they want to stay in the division race. The Rays are facing a Twins team in full rebuild mode, so they’re likely to take their own series, and Boston needs to follow suit.

The Orioles will start 28-year-old righty Spenser Watkins, until this year a minor leaguer in the Tigers organization. He’s about as Orioles as they get, and the Sox should give him a nice local welcome. If they don’t... things aren’t gonna get any better in these parts.

Fortunately for the Sox, they have a secret weapon. Just a new weapon, actually: Kyle Schwarber, who will make his Boston debut and DH. Marwin Gonzalez was DFA’d to make room for the beef lad; thank you for your service, Win of Mar. You were much better when you were able to cheat with the Astros (this is pretty well documented!) than you were for the Sox. J.D. Martinez is out of the lineup to make way for Schwarbs. As the Sox always do when they need a roster move before releasing a lineup, they took forever, so sorry for the delay by not my fault! Here are the goods: