Red Sox Announce Unusual Lineup Before Facing Yankees Ace Cam Schlittler

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The Red Sox announced an unusual lineup before facing Yankees ace Cam Schlittler in Friday’s crucial series opener at Yankee Stadium.

The Boston Red Sox open a crucial four-game series against their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, on Friday night, in a game that will be available to watch exclusively on Apple TV+.

Needing to win at least two of the four at Yankee Stadium to secure the tiebreaker in the American League wild-card race, the Red Sox draw a tough assignment in Game 1, facing the Yankees’ 25-year-old ace Cam Schlittler, a fireballing right-hander with 193 strikeouts against just 37 walks and a league-leading 2.16 ERA in 158 innings pitched.

Before the game, the Red Sox revealed an unusual strategy to take on Schlittler, announcing a lineup decision rarely seen in MLB this year, or in any recent year.

Nick Sogard will lead off for the Red Sox against Schlittler. He will bat left-handed. So will Adley Rutschman, Mickey Gasper and Anthony Seigler. All four are switch hitters, and interim manager Chad Tracy has them all in the starting lineup for the Yankees series opener.

Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Willson Contreras, Caleb Durbin and Jarren Duran complete the nine behind Patrick Sandoval, himself a left-handed pitcher. With Abreu and Duran as exclusively left-handed batters, the Red Sox send six lefties to face Schlittler in the Apple TV+ game.

Four Switchers is a Recent Boston Thing

The Sox did not have the four-switcher combination available for most of the season. Rutschman arrived from Baltimore at the trade deadline, while Gasper got his second call-up from Triple-A Worcester on August 16. The result has been a late-season lineup construction that was not an option in April, or throughout most of the summer.

The previous Red Sox lineup to include Sogard, Rutschman, Gasper and Seigler against a right-handed starter came Aug. 24 against another ace, Miami’s Sandy Alcantara. The Red Sox ended up winning that game 4-2, though they reached Alcantara for only one run in seven innings.

That makes Friday the second recent occurrence with this exact four-switch-hitter group in the starting nine, based on FanGraphs’ Red Sox batting-lineup log.

Four switch-hitters in one starting lineup remains unusual around the majors. Most clubs carry no more than one or two regulars who can hit from both sides, if any. The circumstance generally requires roster timing as much as lineup preference.

Schlittler Has Been Tougher on Righties

Schlittler enters Friday having limited left-handed hitters to a .202 average, .259 on-base percentage and .331 slugging percentage in 385 plate appearances this season. He has struck out 131 lefties while walking 25, though Yankee Stadium has been a different story. Left-handed hitters there own a .274/.329/.479 line against him, per Schlittler’s 2026 FanGraphs split data.

Against right-handed batters, Schlittler has been even tougher overall — .195/.245/.305.

Gasper and Seigler are the clearest examples of why. Gasper has hit .304/.402/.527 with five homers against right-handed pitching this season, compared with .105/.105/.105 against lefties. Seigler’s split is similarly pronounced: .283/.353/.453 against righties and .167/.244/.306 against lefties.

Rutschman also has a season-long edge batting left-handed, posting a .245/.333/.436 line against righties versus .220/.295/.350 against lefties. Sogard is the exception. His small-sample numbers favor him against left-handed pitching — .300/.364/.533, compared with .257/.383/.352 against righties — although his on-base percentage against righties remains strong.