Red Sox at Rays lineups: Hit the ball? Maybe?

Fresh off one of their weirder losses in recent memory, the Red Sox send Rich Hill out against Shane McClanahan in a battle of lefties on a Sunday afternoon (1:10 p.m., NESN, MLBN out-of-market).

The less said about yesterday’s game, the better. Unfortunately talking about McClanahan isn’t very encouraging. He’s very good and young and presents a problem for any team, leastwise one as offensively challenged as these Sox currently are. Then again, it just takes one game to turn it all around.

Hill, one day removed from his normal turn in the rotation, is on the mound for the Sox after being reinstated from the bereavement list prior to the game. Tyler Danish went back down to Worcester to make room on the active roster. He’ll face a Rays team that features speedster Vidal Brujan in the lineup for the first time this year, having recently been recalled from AAA. He doesn’t make contact often (yet), but he’s really, really fast.

The Red Sox are still without J.D. Martinez and are giving Xander Bogaerts the day off at shortstop. Trevor Story is leading off but playing second base; Christian Arroyo is at shortstop. That is very silly, imho, but managing egos is important. Rob Refsnyder is in right field, if you care.