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BOSTON — Mookie Betts and Mike Napoli will begin Saturday’s game on the bench.
Betts, who exited Friday night’s 13-10 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park with a lower back sprain after colliding with the outfield wall, is dealing with back soreness and likely will miss a couple of games, according to Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell. Napoli went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in the teams’ series opener and has been struggling, so Farrell opted to give him a day off, too.
The Red Sox’s outfield will consist of Hanley Ramirez (left field), Rusney Castillo (center field) and Alejandro De Aza (right field) in Betts’ absence. Ramirez sat out Friday’s game with soreness in his left hamstring and left knee, but he’s ready to go for the middle game of the teams’ three-game series.
Brock Holt will play first base with Napoli out of the lineup. It’s unclear at this point whether Napoli will sit for more than one game like David Ortiz and Pablo Sandoval did recently amid their struggles.
Sandy Leon will start behind the dish with Clay Buchholz toeing the rubber for Boston.
The complete lineups for Saturday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays matchup are below.
RED SOX (27-35)
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Brock Holt, 1B
Hanley Ramirez, LF
David Ortiz, DH
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Pablo Sandoval, 3B
Alejandro De Aza, RF
Rusney Castillo, CF
Sandy Leon, C
Clay Buchholz, RHP (3-6, 4.07 ERA)
BLUE JAYS (32-30)
Jose Reyes, SS
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Jose Bautista, RF
Edwin Encarnacion, DH
Chris Colabello, LF
Russell Martin, C
Justin Smoak, 1B
Kevin Pillar, CF
Ryan Goins, 2B
R.A. Dickey, RHP (2-6, 5.35 ERA)
Thumbnail photo via Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images
