Red Sox drop insane lineup with Xander Bogaerts, Christian Arroyo, Tommy Pham out

Bogaerts, Arroyo, Pham sit with injuries as the Red Sox attempt Dalbec at shortstop

The Boston Red Sox may set a record for most varied lineups this season, and not in a good way.

While some teams have too much talent, the Sox have too many players on the Injured List. Injuries have gutted this team all summer, and the players returning from the IL are just being replaced with fresh injuries.

Tommy Pham, Christian Arroyo, and Xander Bogaerts aren’t officially on the IL, but they’re not feeling well enough to play on Wednesday night, either. Hours after the Sox placed Eric Hosmer and Nathan Eovaldi on the IL, Pham left Tuesday night’s game with lower back spasms after smashing into the Green Monster while trying to field a Jackie Bradley Jr. double. I’ll take ‘Trade deadline consequences’ for $500, Alex.

Not long after, Arroyo, who’s been one of the hottest hitters in the game since returning from the IL, attempted to avoid a collision with Jays pitcher Ross Stripling by sliding feet-first into first base. That bold strategy might put him back on the IL with about half his team.

So, the Red Sox will field another Humpty Dumpty lineup on Wednesday, but ‘all the king’s horses and all the king’s men’ probably won’t be able to put a win together.

With Bogaerts also sitting due to a back issue, Bobby Dalbec will play shortstop for the second time in his big-league career. He might be totally inexperienced at the job, but apparently, he’ll be the tallest shortstop in franchise history. That’s… something.

But why is Kiké Hernández playing second base when he’s got ample experience at shortstop and the Sox are trying to get Dalbec to learn second? He’s got a grand total of seven innings of shortstop experience in his entire professional career.

Franchy Cordero will attempt to figure things out at first base; historically, that hasn’t worked. If the Sox wanted a real first baseman, they could’ve called up Triston Casas, but that’s another issue altogether.

Buckle up, Red Sox Nation, this one won’t be pretty…

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