When Cam Schlittler takes the mound Tuesday night for the New York Yankees, the first Red Sox hitter he’ll face will be Roman Anthony.
That’s been the norm for Boston since Anthony returned in late August, with the outfielder setting the table almost every night unless he was out of the lineup. In Game 1, though, it carries a little more weight: Anthony will become the youngest player in Red Sox postseason history to bat leadoff in a playoff game, according to former Red Sox director of baseball communications and media relations JP Long.
And he’s doing it atop what looks like Boston’s strongest lineup of the season.
After 163 games, the Red Sox finally have all of their key bats healthy at the same time, and the result is a lineup that feels far more complete than anything they were able to roll out earlier in the year. Injuries kept changing the picture all season long, and even when Boston had all of these pieces in the same lineup at the end of August, it still looked different before more injuries hit.
In Game 162, for example, Contreras was at designated hitter rather than first base, Andruw Monasterio was at first, and Jarren Duran was on the bench. This time, Boston gets to use all of its options in the biggest game of the year.
The batting order gives the Yankees a little bit of everything. The top three come at them in a lefty-switch-right mix, then Abreu through Sogard follow lefty-righty-switch, and Duran through Durbin bring another lefty-righty-righty combination.
Durbin, described as the heart and soul of the 2026 Red Sox, gives Boston a reliable on-base threat in front of the top of the order. The lineup is so deep that Durbin could have hit second and the rest of the order could have shifted down without raising an eyebrow.
From one through nine, Boston has hitters who can hurt you.
That’s what makes this version of the Red Sox look so different from last year’s Game 1 group. Gonzalez was healthy and tearing it up in Triple-A, but he still didn’t crack the playoff roster.
Last year, he was batting fourth. Narvaez is no longer there.
The comparison makes one thing clear: the 2026 Red Sox are a much stronger team than the 2025 group that opened the postseason. Now they have to prove it against Schlittler and a Yankees staff that brings plenty of pitching - even if Boston’s lineup, on paper, looks like the better one.
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