The Boston Red Sox won't be able to trot out their usual lineup for their final series of the regular season against the Nationals in Washington.
Boston will be without one of its biggest bats during the three-game set in a National League ballpark while pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, who is 0-for-23 in his career, enters the lineup Friday night. Red Sox manager Alex Cora will have some decisions to make with left fielders J.D. Martinez and Alex Verdugo, right fielder Hunter Renfroe, infielder/outfielder Kyle Schwarber and first baseman Bobby Dalbec all among those who could be impacted.
Cora was asked about the difficulty of the situation, especially considering it's the final series of the season with Boston fighting for a playoff berth.
"It's something that I circled out early, early in the season -- that we we're going to play the last three games without the DH," Cora said Thursday before a 6-2 loss to the Orioles. "So, we've been talking about it. We'll see how we do it. Obviously we have some good offensive players that can change games with one swing and at the same time we have to create the balance with the defense. But we'll see. We'll see how it goes.
"Yeah, it's a tricky one. It's not perfect," Cora continued. "But we'll prepare. I think our roster as far as like who we have right now we can be quote-on-quote creative in the early part of the game and then make adjustments throughout games. So we'll see how it plays out."
It'll be interesting to see what Cora decides with the first game scheduled for Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET at Nationals Park. You can watch the game live on NESN.
