Game 127: Rays at Red Sox: The Lefty Showdown

We start with a roster move: Jarren Duran has been optioned to the Worcester Red Sox and second baseman Trevor Story has been activated from the IL! For the first time since July 12, Story will be penciled in a second base. With JBJ a Tornoto Blue Jay and Christian Vazquez a Houston Astro this is the Red Sox full, healthy starting lineup. Is Plawecki vs McGuire a conversation to have (not to mention Connor Wong) sure. But aside from the catchers these are the starters at each position. For the first time since Story went down. And Christian Arroyo is the first bat off the bench and a pretty good one at that.

Rich Hill is in for what could be a rough day. The Rays have stacked a lineup of nine right-handed hitters against the veteran southpaw.

Righties have walloped Hill to the tune of .268/.324/.496 as a group. Their .821 OPS would rank second on the Red Sox right after Rafael Devers and .001 above Xander Bogaerts. Imagine a lineup of nine Xanders. Maybe Cora is going to pull a switch and Hill is the opener and the Rays took the bait....

Jeffrey Springs enters the game with a 2.46 ERA/3.18 FIP splitting his time between the bullpen (9 outings) and the rotation (15 starts since May 9). He faced the Sox once n July 5 in a game Boston won 8-4. Springs gave up 3 earned runs in 4 innings while striking out 5. He’s been good...4 runs once, 3 runs four times. He doesn’t have noticeable day/night or home/away splits. Lefties have hit him a few ticks harder than righties this year for the reverse split...fingers crossed and the Sox stay barely alive in the race.