Red Sox Lineup: Mookie Betts back in lead-off spot ahead of Andrew Benintendi

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After two disappointing losses to the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox will look to right the ship in a crucial three-game series with the New York Yankees. Currently, the Sox trail their divisional rivals by 7.5 games in the AL East, and they will look to make up some ground to avoid slipping further behind.

In the first game of the series, the Sox will be putting their ace, Chris Sale, on the hill. Despite his poor-looking 1-6 record, Sale has been very good over the course of his past seven starts, logging 74 strikeouts and allowing three or fewer earned runs in each outing. He will look to continue his success against a powerful Yankees lineup. 

The biggest change in the Red Sox' lineup is that Mookie Betts is going to be leading off despite Andrew Benintendi's presence in the lineup. Benintendi has had 43 plate appearances this season as the first batter of a game, but he has only gone 3-37 with no extra-base hits in those at-bats.

While Betts is only 1-9 in such circumstances this year, he holds a .264 average with 16 homers as a lead-off man over the course of his career. And last season, he posted a .286 average with five homers as the team's primary lead-off man.

Here's a look at the full lineups for both teams. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium.

BOSTON RED SOX (29-27)
Mookie Betts, RF
Andrew Benintendi, LF
J.D. Martinez, DH
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Rafael Devers, 3B
Steve Pearce, 1B
Eduardo Nunez, 2B
Jackie Bradley, CF
Sandy Leon, C

Chris Sale, RHP (1-6, 4.19 ERA)

NEW YORK YANKEES (36-19)
DJ Lemahieu, 2B
Luke Voit, 1B
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gary Sanchez, C
Gleyber Torres, SS
Kendrys Morales, DH
Gio Urshela, 3B
Cameron Maybin, RF
Brett Gardner, LF

J.A. Happ, LHP (4-3, 5.09 ERA)

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