{"id":678504,"date":"2026-04-18T16:54:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:54:30","slug":"red-sox-make-sweeping-lineup-decision-for-tigers-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678504\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Make Sweeping Lineup Decision For Tigers Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/alex-cora-red-sox-lineup-decision.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Alex Cora reacts amid sweeping lineup changes.\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced sweeping lineup changes for Saturday\u2019s game facing Tarik Skubal.\n<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/mlb\/boston-red-sox\/\" title=\"Boston Red Sox\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"230016\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Red Sox<\/a> manager made a sweeping decision before Saturday\u2019s game, announcing four lineup changes as Boston tries to extend its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/schedule\/_\/name\/bos\/boston-red-sox\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">short winning streak<\/a> to three games. The Red Sox have a tall order, facing <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/mlb\/player\/tarik-skubal\/\" title=\"Tarik Skubal\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"230026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tarik Skubal<\/a>, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Sox narrowly edged the Detroit Tigers in the opener of their four-game series on Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/recap\/_\/gameId\/401814973\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">winning 1-0 in 10 innings<\/a> on a walk-off single by Masataka Yoshida. But in one Cora decision, the lefty-swinging Yoshida will not be in the lineup on Saturday to face the dominant left-hander Skubal.<\/p>\n<p>Cora also will sit left-handed hitters <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/mlb\/player\/jarren-duran\/\" title=\"Jarren Duran\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"230025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jarren Duran<\/a> and Marcelo Mayer against Skubal. In an unusual move, Cora also decided to start catcher <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/mlb\/player\/connor-wong\/\" title=\"Connor Wong\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"230021\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Connor Wong<\/a>, a rare day-game-after-night-game start for a catcher. Carlos Narvaez, though a right-handed batter, will not be in the starting lineup for the Red Sox. The lineup changes were first reported by Red Sox beat writer <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChrisCotillo\/status\/2045525664573301020?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chris Cotillo of MassLive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/mlb\/boston-red-sox\/rafael-devers-contract-worst-in-baseball-analyst\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-lazy-load=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776531270_120_rafael-devers-contract-worst-in-baseball-analyst.jpg\" width=\"242\" height=\"161\" class=\"size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reasons For Sweeping Lineup Changes<\/p>\n<p>Cora also decided to place shortstop Trevor Story in the designated hitter spot, electing to go with offseason trade acquisition <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/mlb\/player\/andruw-monasterio\/\" title=\"Andruw Monasterio\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"230019\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andruw Monasterio<\/a> at short and, in perhaps the most surprising move if all, batting second against Skubal.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the complete starting lineup for the Red Sox, for the 4:10 p.m. ET game at Fenway Park Saturday against the Tigers.<\/p>\n<p>THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. RELOAD THE PAGE FOR FURTHER DETAILS<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/jonathan-vankin-ejjyr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/jonathan-vankin-ejjyr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Red Sox\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced sweeping lineup changes for Saturday\u2019s game facing Tarik Skubal. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-678504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116426761169085740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}