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After the Red Sox silenced the offense of the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, they’ll look to do it again with Garrett Whitlock taking the hill for a 7:10 p.m. EST start time at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox have had plenty of uninspiring offensive performances of their own this season, so it was nice to see them induce one from the Angels on Tuesday in a 4-0 victory. Michael Wacha continued to defy his peripherals (and make me look stupid) to lead the way, with Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez both clobbering home runs as part of the victory.
Whitlock could very well repeat or exceed Wacha’s performance from yesterday. The 25-year-old right-hander has been exceptional as both a starter and a reliever, although he hasn’t pitched deep into games in the former role. But who cares? With an 0.54 ERA, 31.3 percent strikeout rate and 6.3 percent walk rate, there’s very little to dislike about Whitlock’s performance this year.
Reid Detmers will oppose Whitlock. The 22-year-old southpaw is the top prospect in the Angels’ system, according to FanGraphs, which might not be saying much given the state of the organization’s prospect rankings, but it still shows the potential he has. So far, his results have been lacking, but opposing an underperforming pitcher hasn’t always kept the Red Sox from taking a snooze at the plate this season.
If the Red Sox do capture another win today, it will mark only the third time this season they’ve won back-to-back games. If you’re wondering, they haven’t won three-straight yet, but we’ll worry about that another time.
For now, here are today’s lineups. There’s a bit of shuffling going on for the Red Sox after the first four spots, with Enrique Hernández moving up to fifth while Alex Verdugo goes to sixth against the left-handed Detmers. Christian Arroyo is in right field for Jackie Bradley Jr. seemingly to get the righty batter on left-handed pitcher advantage.
Ed. Note: A previous version of this story had the handedness of the pitchers switched.
Game 25 vs. Angels
| Lineup spot | Angels | Red Sox |
|---|---|---|
| Lineup spot | Angels | Red Sox |
| 1 | Brandon Marsh, RF | Trevor Story, 2B |
| 2 | Mike Trout, CF | Rafael Devers, 3B |
| 3 | Shohei Ohtani, DH | Xander Bogaerts, SS |
| 4 | Anthony Rendon, 3B | J.D. Martinez, DH |
| 5 | Jared Walsh, 1B | Enrique Hernández, CF |
| 6 | Jose Rojas, LF | Alex Verdugo, LF |
| 7 | Max Stassi, C | Christian Vázquez, C |
| 8 | Tyler Wade, 2B | Bobby Dalbec, 1B |
| 9 | Andrew Velazquez, SS | Christian Arroyo, RF |
| SP | Reid Detmers, LHP | Garrett Whitlock, RHP |
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