Red Sox vs. Mariners lineup: No Flexen on this Story

The Red Sox, showing signs of life for the first time all season behind newcomer Trevor Story, can win their fourth straight game this afternoon at Fenway Park behind Garrett Whitlock (4:10 p.m., NESN).

The question was never if the Red Sox, and Story specifically, would start to hit, but when, and now we have our answer. With the Sox 11.5 games back of the Yankees, it’s just in the nick of time to keep all of our preseason hopes alive, but they’ll need a lot more where this has come from to get back into it. That said, four homers over two games tends to raise the spirits a little bit, and that’s before we get to the man on the mound.

Whitlock can extend the season-long winning streak this afternoon, and especially after Nathan Eovaldi’s meltdown the other night, there’s little question that he’s the ace right now — exactly what we want to see with things starting to heat up (literally and figuratively). The lineup is the same usual more or less, albeit with Franchy Cordero at first base against Chris Flexen, whose name is great for puns.