Red Sox vs. Orioles lineups: J.D. Martinez has entered the chat

The Red Sox look to make it four straight wins that don’t matter when they face the Orioles this afternoon in Florida behind Tanner Houck (1:05 p.m., NESN, MLB.tv).

J.D. Martinez makes his first start of the spring, with the Red Sox lineup looking very much legitimate just four days into the abbreviated March slate. We’ve got Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Martinez and Verdugo and no Quad-A players to speak of, unless you would deign to call Jackie Bradley Jr. one of those, in which case we would fight. I wouldn’t say you’re wrong, necessarily, but we’d still fight.

The Orioles, they of the $30 million payroll, have a number of Quad-A players, which is to say they’re also running out a representative lineup. They have some names though: Terrin Vavra, Anthony Bemboom and Robert Neustrom; not since the days of Izzy Alcantara could the Sox compete with such linguistically powerful forces.

Fortunately, though, they’re playing baseball and not Scrabble, so the Sox should have a distinct advantage. Also because proper names are banned in Scrabble. So there’s that.