The Red Sox will stick with the shuffled lineup they introduced on Saturday despite the poor result it produced against Freddy Garcia.
Good for just one run in that game, the Boston lineup saw Carl Crawford strand four men in his new position batting second (though he did bring the only Sox run in to score) and David Ortiz leave five on in an 0-for-4 night. This left Adrian Gonzalez, working out of the fifth spot, with relatively few opportunities to bat with runners on base.
Boston Red Sox (88-69)
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Conor Jackson, RF
- Marco Scutaro, SS
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Mike Aviles, SS
The New York Yankees, meanwhile, will give the Sox a much-needed break in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader:
New York Yankees (96-61)
- Brett Gardner, CF
- Derek Jeter, SS
- Alex Rodriguez, 3B
- Jorge Posada, DH
- Andruw Jones, LF
- Russell Martin, C
- Chris Dickerson, RF
- Brandon Laird, 1B
- Ramiro Pena, 2B
Pitching Matchup: Tim Wakefield (7-7, 5.08 ERA) vs. A.J. Burnett (10-11, 5.28 ERA)
It's a little amazing to see this matchup appear so close on paper, and really, this is an opportunity the Sox can't waste. Wakefield has been terrible of late, yes, but so has Burnett. And with the Yankees going to a reduced lineup, that could be all the Sox need to pull off a win on a day when their wild card lead is, for the first time, in jeopardy of shrinking to zero.