The Red Sox will field what is likely to be their full opening day lineup Tuesday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays as Josh Beckett takes the mound looking to continue his run of successful spring starts. First pitch is at 1:35 p.m. EST. There is no broadcast for today's game.
With Jose Iglesias having been sent down and Carl Crawford highly unlikely to be ready to start the year, today's starting nine featuring Ryan Sweeney and Mike Aviles seems certain to be the lineup to start the season. What's not clear is whether this is the order Bobby Valentine intends to use:
Boston Red Sox (11-10)
- Mike Aviles, SS
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Cody Ross, LF
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
- Ryan Sweeney, RF
Tampa Bay Rays (7-14)
- Desmond Jennings, DH
- Matt Joyce, RF
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Carlos Pena, 1B
- Jeff Keppinger, 3B
- Jeff Salazar, CF
- Sean Rodriguez, SS
- Jose Lobaton, C
- Will Rhymes, LF
The curious choice is obviously to have Mike Aviles at the top of the order, but that may just be Bobby Valentine getting him as many at bats as possible in spring. If you just shift everyone up a spot and move Aviles to ninth, that seems like the likely configuration, maintaining the alternating left-right hitters and largely keeping everyone in their place from 2011.
The Rays will be throwing Fernando Rodney to start, presumably with a cavalcade of pen arms to follow.