On Friday, the Red Sox (34-36) open a three-game series at Fenway Park against the first-place New York Yankees (42-25), and will do so without rookie infielder Marcelo Mayer in the lineup.
LISTEN LIVE TO YANKEES AT RED SOX ON WEEI
Mayer - who’s been playing third base when in the lineup for Boston since being called up on May 24 - had the best game of his infantile professional career on Wednesday, hitting two home runs in a 4-3 win over Tampa (36-32).
But after an off-day for the Red Sox on Thursday, the rookie will not be in the lineup in his team’s series opener against New York - a team he hit his first major league home run against last Friday.
Manager Alex Cora mentioned multiple times in the lead up to Friday about his desire to sit Mayer and fellow rookie Roman Anthony against certain lefties, and he followed through on those words with Friday’s lineup card.
“How hard is it to sit Marcelo knowing he’s had a two-homer game his last time out?” WCVB’s Josh Brogadir asked Cora pregame on Friday.
“Well, [Abraham] Toro’s playing third and Romy [Gonzalez] is playing first,” said Cora. “So they’re doing a good job, too. Most likely, he’ll play third tomorrow. But this is where we’re at.
“We got 13 good position players, and we’ll use the roster to our advantage.”
It is notable that Mayer’s running mate in Anthony was given the green light to start against a lefty on Friday despite being looped into Cora’s comments from earlier in the week.
Cora said pregame that he “felt like the matchup was a good one.”
“Cannot play them all,” said Cora. “Play Roman today, felt the matchup was a good one. [Rob Refsnyder] leading off, Romy playing third. Felt like it’s the right one for this matchup, and we’ll decide tomorrow what we’re gonna do.
“We’ll take it day by day. They’re gonna get at bats, they will. Everybody will.”
Sox will look to keep the good times rolling as they’ve won five of their last seven games heading into Friday. They’ll do so with Garrett Crochet (6-4, 2.35 ERA) on the mound, with Ryan Yarbrough (0-0, 4.17 ERA) on the bump for New York.
WEEI and WEEI.com are your home for Red Sox baseball all season long. Hear every single game of the 2025 season on 93.7 WEEI-FM in Boston and across the WEEI Shaw's Star Market Red Sox Radio Network.