Red Sox at Blue Jays lineups: Have you seen the bat men?

The Red Sox look to rein in their free-swinging ways tonight behind Nick Pivetta in Toronto, where they face Kevin Gausman as they try to snap a three-game losing streak and awaken the offense (7:07 p.m., NESN, MLBN out-of-network).

At 1-5 over their last 6 games, things are not great right now in Red Sox Nation, and the culprit is the one part of the team everyone thought was fine. The offense is struggling mightily, and even if J.D. Martinez’s absence looms large it hardly explains away the issues. Which are: Swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, as Matt wrote. The better strategy for baseball success, Matt suggests—and I agree with him—is to swing at pitches in the strike zone, and not those outside of it. Sorry so spice up your Tuesday with a hot take, but we think it has merit.

It would behoove the Sox tonight especially, as they face Gausman, who held them to 1 run over eight innings last time out on a mere 88 pitches. That is, to say the least, not what you want, especially with Pivetta on the mound. Nick has looked... not great this season, to say the least, with an ERA over 10.00 and the underlying stats to match. That’s bad. On the bright side, it probably can’t get worse. On the less bright side... it can, technically, get worse.

Rafael Devers gets the night off, with Christian Arroyo starting at third base, because he just starts wherever they need him, right? Otherwise little to report on either side. Here they are: