Red Sox vs. Blue Jays lineups: Things are looking up, if only literally

The Red Sox face the AL East-leading Blue Jays—get used to hearing that—tonight behind Nathan Eovaldi at Fenway Park (7:10 p.m., NESN, MLBN out-of-market).

True, the Sox are a single game back of first place, and they would pull into a tie with a win. The broader point is that the Blue Jays are extremely good and fun. Yusei Kikuchi, their starter tonight, looks to rebound from a disastrous first start, whereas Nathan Eovaldi goes out there likely on his way toward doing Big Nate things. Not the Big Nate things like giving up 4 homers over 10 innings, as he has, because this lineup, with Vladimir Gurrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Lourdes Gurriel among them (and that’s just among the sons of baseball legends), would be happy to oblige—the other Big Nate things, like being awesome and also being more awesome than that.

The lefty on the mound means Jackie Bradley is out of the game and, in a neat twist, Trevor Story is back in the field—and batting second! Everyone else is pushed down a peg, and with Christian Vázquez and Kevin Plawecki on the COVID list, Connor Wong gets the start behind the dish, and Rob Refsnyder is back from Worcester.

The Blue Jays put out just a terrifying lineup with the guys mentioned above and, ho-hum, George Springer at leadoff and Matt Chapman batting sixth. Crazy talk. Hold on to your butts.