The Red Sox go into Wednesday's game winners of eight of their last 12 games.
But zoom in a bit and you'd see that they've dropped three of their last four, including Tuesday night's game to the White Sox, 5-4.
Boston led in that one but a three-run seventh inning by the White Sox, courtesy of a Trayce Thompson two-run double that got past Hanley Ramirez in left field, put the White Sox ahead for good.
Nothing will get past Ramirez on Wednesday night, as he will DH with David Ortiz getting the night off.
That means both Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney Castillo get a rare start on the same night, as Bradley plays left field and Castillo plays right. Mookie Betts mans center field as usual.
This is the outfield configuration that pretty much everybody wants to see, and all you have to do is look at the last few games to see why. Bats aside, these three outfielders are all plus-defenders (Bradley is an A-plus defender…). Over the last three games, the three of them have combined for five outfield assists, two Tuesday night from Betts and Bradley, one Monday night from Castillo, and two on Sunday against the Royals from Bradley and Betts.
It marks the 1st time the Red Sox have received as many as 5 assists from outfielders in a 3-game span since 1959.
In other lineup news, Pablo Sandoval gets the night off and Brock Holt takes over at third base. That puts Josh Rutledge at second base. Blake Swihart gets the start behind the plate with Rick Porcello making his first start since hitting the disabled list with triceps soreness.
The Sox will face Chris Sale, who they knocked around the last time they faced him to the tune of 7 runs on 12 hits in 5.0 innings.
The full lineups:
RED SOX
Mookie Betts, CF
Brock Holt, 3B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Hanley Ramirez, DH
Travis Shaw, 1B
Rusney Castillo, RF
Blake Swihart, C
Jackie Bradley Jr., LF
Josh Rutledge, 2B
Rick Porcello RHP.
WHITE SOX
Adam Eaton, CF
Jose Abreu, DH
Cabrera, LF
Avisail Garcia, RF
Adam LaRoche, 1B
Alexei Ramirez, SS
Carlos Sanchez, 2B
Tyler Flowers, C
Tyler Saladino, 3B
Chris Sale, LHP