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Red Sox Vs. Rangers Lineups: Jacoby Ellsbury Makes Return To Boston Lineup

The Red Sox will have Jacoby Ellsbury back in their lineup Tuesday night for the first time since Friday, when he was hit by a pitch in the back towards the end of a game against the Royals. 

Ellsbury's return comes at just the right time, just one day after the Sox were blanked by C.J. Wilson. With right-hander Colby Wilson on the mound, Ellsbury will also have a favorable matchup right off the bat. 

Whether or not the return of Ellsbury alone will be enough to make a difference for the Red Sox, however, remains to be seen. After all, it was the failure of the whole team, not any particular individual which sunk Boston's offense Monday. A one-man fix would be pretty impressive.

Boston Red Sox (77-50)

  1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
  2. Marco Scutaro, SS
  3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
  4. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
  5. Josh Reddick, RF
  6. Jed Lowrie, 3B
  7. Carl Crawford, LF
  8. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
  9. Ryan Lavarnway, DH

The only change in Texas' lineup will be the addition of left-handed Endy Chavez in center to face the right-handed John Lackey.

Texas Rangers (74-55)

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Elvis Andrus, SS
  3. Josh Hamilton, LF
  4. Michael Young, 3B
  5. Nelson Cruz, RF
  6. Mike Napoli, DH
  7. Mitch Moreland, 1B
  8. Yorvit Torrealba, C
  9. Endy Chavez, CF

Pitching Matchup: John Lackey (11-9, 6.02 ERA) vs. Colby Lewis (11-8, 3.83 ERA)

John Lackey hasn't exactly been on fire of late, but he's still be pretty reasonable over his last few games, so it's probably not too much to ask for a decent out--

John Lackey career ERA in Arlington: 6.78

Oh...

John Lackey career vs. current Rangers .356/.407/.557

Oh no...

John Lackey career OPS vs. Josh Hamilton: 1.469

John Lackey career OPS vs. Ian Kinsler: 1.428

Oh God no...

So the Rangers will probably do pretty well tonight.

As for Colby Lewis, well, he's pretty bad against lefties this year, with a .824 OPS against them this season. That, at least, plays into the Red Sox' strengths. Typically, the same can be said of his fly balls. Unfortunately, he does have a good slider, which the Sox can have trouble with, and there's just the fact that he's a good pitcher in general. And, when you take Lackey's numbers against Texas into consideration, he looks like a monster, plain and simple.