After sweeping the first leg of the road trip against the Mets on Wednesday and Thurday, the Red Sox will look to go unbeaten against another New York team in the American League East-leading Yankees over the weekend.
In the first of this three-game set in the Bronx, right-hander Ryan Weber will get the ball first for Boston, while 27-year-old left-hander Jordan Montgomery will do the same for New York.
Weber, 29, has never started a game against the Yankees before in his brief major-league career, but he does own a 2.84 ERA in three career relief appearances against the Bronx Bombers spanning 6 1/3 total innings pitched.
Montgomery, meanwhile, has three starts against the Red Sox under his belt, and he owns a 3.30 ERA in those outings spanning 14 1/3 innings of work.
As for how the Sox will be lining up behind Weber and against Montgomery to start things out on Friday, outfielder Kevin Pillar will get a crack at the leadoff spot in this one.
In what will be his first game as a leadoff hitter with Boston, the 31-year-old right-handed bat owns a lifetime .303/.339/.541 slash line in 118 career plate appearances when leading off against southpaws.
From there, J.D. Martinez is back in the two-hole at designated hitter, Rafael Devers is batting third after starting Thursday’s game on the bench, and Xander Bogaerts is batting cleanup. Pretty standard stuff for Sox manager Ron Roenicke thus far.
The red-hot Christian Vazquez, fresh off a 4-for-8, three-homer series against the Mets, will be starting at catcher and hitting out the No. 5 spot for the fourth time in five days, while Alex Verdugo will once again start against a left-handed pitcher and take Andrew Benintendi’s place in left field.
Rounding things out we have Michael Chavis starting at first in place of Mitch Moreland, Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field, per usual, and the ever-elusive Jose Peraza starting at second and batting out of the nine-hole for the third time in eight games.
Among the nine hitters in Friday’s starting lineup, Vazquez has had the most success against Montgomery, as he is a lifetime .750 hitter (3-for-4 with one home run) when facing the Yankees starter.
First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN, MLB Network, and WEEI. Red Sox going for their third straight win.
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