The third Monday in April is Patriots’ Day, an official holiday in Massachusetts, Maine and Wisconsin, and nodded at unofficially in several other states. Schools and banks and stuff are closed in the places that observe it and the Boston Marathon is being run as we speak. For our purposes, we get morning baseball.
Today the Red Sox take on the Orioles at 11:05AM EDT. Dan Straily gets the call for Baltimore, Hector Velázquez gets the call for the Bosox. The fun part of morning baseball, though, is the lineup Boston is trotting out:
1. Dustin Pedroia (R) DH
2. Mookie Betts (R) CF
3. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B
4. J.D. Martinez (R) RF
5. Xander Bogaerts (R) SS
6. Rafael Devers (L) 3B
7. Steve Pearce (R) LF
8. Blake Swihart (S) C
9. Christian Vázquez (R) 2B
Yeah, that’s catcher Christian Vázquez at second base. He has played four games at third base in the past but has never played the keystone in the big leagues. That should be fun. Steve Pearce played a couple of games in the outfield last year but this is his first action out there in 2019. Between that and J.D. Martinez getting the start in right, Mookie Betts is gonna get a lot of running in today.
Viva morning baseball.
