Red Sox vs. Braves lineups: Chapter 1 for Trevor Story

The Red Sox send the A team out against the Braves to back up Tanner Houck this afternoon at JetBlue Park (1:05 p.m., NESN)—notably, with Trevor Story in the lineup.

That’s right, folks. He’s finally here. Less than two weeks after signing with the Sox and days after the birth of his child, Story will bat sixth and show off what figures to be the full-strength Boston lineup at long last. He’ll play second base, where he’s expected to stay for the majority of 2022, but we’ll see what happens after that. Every metric there is say Story is an elite fielding shortstop and that Xander Bogaerts is not, but right now the position is Bogaerts’s to lose. Derek Jeter was his idol, and, like Jeter, he’s now blocking someone much better. Re2pect.

But honestly who cares at this point? Story > no Story, if only for the puns. There’s just incredible material to work with on that front. Less so with Tanner Houck, today’s starter, but there’s some Bruce Banner/banner day material for the bad and good days. Which will today be? He’s tentatively penciled into the starting rotation, so a Tanner Day (see?) is hopefully in the cards to underscore the wisdom of that decision. But if it’s a bad day, it doesn’t matter because the preseason is fake. Win-win, baby!

Here are the lineups: