Red Sox lineup: Top rookie moves to leadoff spot, Jarren Duran to bat third

Before he made his MLB debut, Roman Anthony routinely batted leadoff for the Red Sox’s minor league affiliates as he worked his way up through the system. Sunday afternoon Anthony will get his first chance to kick things off for the big league club. Related Articles MLB notes: On Hall of Fame weekend, a look at future Red Sox candidates Cerullo: Dodgers a reminder of how far Red Sox have to go Red Sox fall in yet another early hole, lose to Dodgers 5-2 Former Red Sox great expected to rejoin Dodgers on Saturday Red Sox erase five-run deficit, beat Phillies in 11 innings to avoid sweep Anthony will bat leadoff for the first time in his MLB career as the Red Sox look to take this weekend’s series against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Jarren Duran, who has batted leadoff in 90 of the club’s first 117 games, will instead bat third for the first time this season. “Just felt right,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “Roman has done that throughout his career and I felt like today was a good day to try it. (Duran) has been really good with men on throughout the season so last night after the game I said we should give it a try and see what happens.” “I like the two at bats together, Roman and Alex (Bregman), then JD can do whatever he wants hitting third,” Cora added later. “He can be aggressive if he wants or he can be as patient as he’s been this week. Just felt like we’ll try it today and see how it goes.” Anthony has batted near the top of the order ever since his promotion in early June and came into Sunday batting .265 with a .382 on-base percentage through his first 39 MLB games. Duran is batting .259 with a .326 OBP on the season, but lately has been highly productive, batting .292 with three home runs, six doubles, three triples and 16 RBI since the start of July. In addition to that lineup flip, Trevor Story is set to bat cleanup for the third time this season, Masataka Yoshida is batting fifth and serving as the DH, and Ceddanne Rafaela is once again starting at second base. Walker Buehler (6-6, 5.72) is set to make his first start against his former team. He’ll face off against Los Angeles’ Dustin May (6-6, 4.73). Red Sox lineup Roman Anthony LF Alex Bregman 3B Jarren Duran CF Trevor Story SS Masataka Yoshida DH Carlos Narvaez C Wilyer Abreu RF Ceddanne Rafaela 2B Abraham Toro 1B Walker Buehler P How to watch When: 1:35 p.m. Where: Fenway Park, Boston Broadcast info: NESN, WEEI 93.7 FM, WCCM 1490 AM (Spanish), WESX 1230 AM (Spanish)