Lookout Landing's Jeff Sullivan described the start of the baseball season as a series of stages, allowing both players and fans the chance to gradually transition from snow in Boston to sunshine in City of Palms Park.
You go from the winter to workouts, from workouts to intrasquad games, from intrasquad games to intersquad preseason games, and from intersquad preseason games to intersquad regular season games (more commonly known as "games").
We're obviously not at the games stage yet, but on Saturday, the Boston Red Sox are playing a baseball game. Well, two games, actually. Sure, it's just their traditional doubleheader against a couple of college teams -- Boston College and Northeastern -- but still: games.
In preparation, Terry Francona has released his lineups for Saturday. It's still winter in February, and it's cold, but we're looking at lineups for a Red Sox game. So that's something.
Red Sox vs. Boston College (1 p.m. EST)
- Marco Scutaro SS
- Dustin Pedroia 2B
- David Ortiz DH
- Kevin Youkilis 1B
- Darnell McDonald LF
- Ryan Kalish CF
- Lars Anderson 1B
- Josh Reddick RF
- Ryan Lavarnway C
Stolmy Pimentel gets the start on the mound.
Lineups for the Northeastern game after the jump.
Red Sox vs. Northeastern (6 p.m. EST)
- Jacoby Ellsbury CF
- Jed Lowrie SS
- Mike Cameron DH
- Daniel Nava LF
- Luis Exposito C
- Hector Luna 1B
- Yamaico Navarro 3B
- Omar Linares RF
- Larry Sutton C
Pitcher Kyle Weiland gets the start.