Red Sox vs. Rangers lineups: “Happy” Sale Day

Chris Sale and the Red Sox look to pull out of yet another August funk tonight against Dane Dunning the Texas Rangers tonight at Fenway Park (7:10 p.m., NESN).

The Sox’s August has developed a clear pattern: Lose to the good teams, beat the bad ones. Fortunately, the Rangers fall into the latter category. At 42-79, they are 19 games behind the Angels for fourth place in the AL West. That’s very bad! Much like last weekend’s Orioles series, it’s a sight for sore eyes, the Sox having been maced back to Boston after a lost three-game set in the Bronx.

And, of course, tonight’s game features Sale in his second tune-up start, a schedule (of Baltimore and Texas) that was probably factored into the decision to bring him back when they did. If last weekend was any indication, Sale should be up to the challenge of facing the Joey Gallo-less Rangers, and boy howdy, he’d better be for our collective sanity, which I suspect is starting to fritter away.

Today’s lineup is spicy, with Kyle Schwarber DHing and batting cleanup. Importantly, he is in the lineup whatsoever. So is Brock Holt, for the Rangers, but the rest of the lineup... dear God, the Sox gotta sweep this thing. That is all.