BOSTON - The Dave Dombrowski Era begins Wednesday night at Fenway Park, and based on tonight's lineup, beginning his tenure as Red Sox President of Baseball Operations with a win is going to be harder than it normally would be.
Hanley Ramirez, Mookie Betts, and Xander Bogaerts are all out of tonight’s lineup. There are no injuries to report, just rest, according to Torey Lovullo.
"That's just a temporary thought, temporary change because I wanted to give Xander the day off," Lovullo said. "He hasn't had the day off since June 23. He's played a lot of baseball and he's been playing good baseball and we want to maintain that and stay ahead of it. Hanley's situation was mostly planned, kind of back off of his injury, we wanted to give him some down time after adjusting the foot. Everything is fine there. Much in the same with Mookie. Mookie has been going hard to get back on the field, playing very good baseball. And a little bit like Xander we want to stay ahead of it we don't want to tire these kids out especially in combination with returning from the injury. Just made a lot of sense to rest those three guys."
It's not the best time to rest three of the team's best hitters, as Corey Kluber takes the mound for the Indians. Kluber is by no means pitching like a reigning Cy Young award winner, but he's still capable of that performance. On the season, Kluber is 8-12 with a 3.34 ERA. He's 5th in the majors in strikeouts with 193 in 180.2 innings.
Lovullo said that those players are available to pinch-hit, but it sounds like aside fro a potentially game-winning situation, it's not going to happen.
"If we have the chance to win a ballgame with one swing of the bat, somebody might pop out of the dugout and hopefully get that opportunity," Lovullo said. "So it is a lot of offense to take out of the lineup. We're facing Corey Kluber, it's not exactly what you want to do, but I believe in every player that's playing no matter if they're a starter or a bench guy. We are a complete team. We're 12 to 13 position players deep on any given night. And you've heard it a million times, you're only as good as your 25th guy. So those guys need playing time. They need to go out there and contribute and today's going to be their day."
Alejandro De Aza takes over in left field for Ramirez and will bat leadoff. Brock Holt slides over to shortstop and Josh Rutledge gets the start at second base. Jackie Bradley Jr. moves to center field and Rusney Castillo takes right field.
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Here are the full lineups:
RED SOX:
Alejandro De Aza, LF
Brock Holt, SS
Pablo Sandoval, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
Travis Shaw, 1B
Rusney Castillo, RF
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
Ryan Hanigan, C
Josh Rutledge, 2B
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Joe Kelly, P
INDIANS:
Jason Kipnis, 2B
Francisco Lindor, SS
Michael Brantley, DH
Carlos Santana, 1B
Lonnie Chisenhall, RF
Yan Gomes, C
Abraham Almonte, CF
Giovanny Urshela, 3B
Jose Ramirez, LF
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Corey Kluber, P