Yankees showing no urgency with Red Sox series after confounding lineup reveal

We said it this morning, and we'll say it again: if the Yankees lose the series opener to the Red Sox on Friday, it will be bad. They will put themselves in a world of hurt and it will be very difficult to recover. We've seen this story play out under manager Aaron Boone many times.

Cam Schlittler is the starter. Red Sox fans are seething at the opportunity to defeat the man who has shown them up constantly over the last two years after their own trash talk blew up in their face (though they like to ignore that part).

That would mean stacking your best possible lineup against weak left-hander Patrick Sandoval is the move to ensure against any nonsense. But what did Boone do? He put together a much inferior group, probably with hopes he can "pinch hit some guys later on." You know, when those opportunities no longer exist because the opposing manager simply works around it.

For Friday night's game, Boone has Spencer Jones (one of the team's hottest hitters) on the bench. He has Luis García Jr., arguably THE team's hottest hitter, on the bench. Jazz Chisholm Jr., who is awful against left-handed starters, is at second base. George Lombard Jr., who has made an error in six straight games and is the first Yankees shortstop to do so since 1921, is starting. Heliot Ramos, who is hitting .111 with a .411 OPS since being acquired at the trade deadline, is playing right field — a position he's only received seven starts at this season.

We will be thrilled to be proven wrong if everything goes swimmingly and the Yankees take home an emphatic victory. But this feels like starting off on the worst possible foot. This lineup didn't require excessive tinkering, especially with a doubleheader on Saturday.

Yankees' awful Friday lineup could set a regrettable tone for Red Sox series

Trent Grisham, who continues to make defensive miscues and is right back to swinging and missing in big moments, is in center field. Boone has blindly defended him as well despite countless infractions over the last few weeks. This is Yankees baseball now. It's been for the past eight-plus years.

Boone doesn't seem to remember that the offense and defense failed Schlittler during his last two outings against the Sox. The right-hander got one run of support back on June 7 in what ended up being a 6-1 Yankees win, but they needed five runs in the eighth to salvage that one. And then came the June 25 disaster where the Yankees lost 6-3, blew a 2-0 lead, and committed four errors.

Boone's lineup all but explicitly puts a ton of pressure on Schlittler to be perfect against the hottest team in MLB (the Sox are 35-12 over their last 47 games). You really want to leave this up to chance?

What's the plan for Saturday, then? Start your same guys in both games? Could've just split everything up with a weaker lineup in the first game of the doubleheader to give the appropriate players rest after a night game on Friday.

It just all seemed so easy, and Boone has made it harder than it needed to be. We'll be pounding the pavement if the Yankees set the tone correctly on Friday and will have no issue eating crow, but we'll be pointing to all these arguments above if they manage to lose.

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