WASHINGTON -- Playing under National League rules at a time the Red Sox are searching for offense, manager Alex Cora got creative with his team’s season on the line.

For Friday night’s opener of a three-game series against the Nationals, Cora went with an outfield probably nobody would have predicted. Kyle Schwarber got the nod in left, with Hunter Renfroe in center and J.D. Martinez stationed in right.

Boston’s typical outfield alignment is Alex Verdugo in left, Kiké Hernández in center and Renfroe in right.

Facing lefty starter Josh Rogers, Verdugo was out of the lineup with Hernández supplanting José Iglesias at second. In this arrangement, Bobby Dalbec’s power righty bat was able to stay in there.

“Yeah, we’re going with the big boys in the outfield,” said Cora. “Bobby’s playing first. With the lefty, trying to get, I’ll put it this way, instant offense. I think it's the best offensive alignment, that we can put, obviously, in the outfield. It’s not the rangiest outfield, but they make plays. And, you know, we're playing the National League, so there's no DH. So you have to make adjustments, and that's what we decided to do.”

Though this figures to be a stressful weekend in which the Red Sox might have to win all three games to assure playing past Sunday, Cora was having fun with his unique outfield trio.

“I would love to say we went with the Miami offense, football-wise, but we decided to go Boise State,” said Cora. “Instant offense. It is what it is, it’s where we’re at. It’s the National League, there’s a lefty on the mound. Having those three in the outfield, it’s not as rangy as you’d want to be. They’ll make good decisions. The hope is for the offense to wake up, that’s the most important thing.”

While losing two out of three this week against the Orioles, the team with the worst ERA in the Majors, the Sox scored just two runs in both of their defeats.

Pitching plans
Cora is taking a wait-and-see approach with his pitching for the weekend. As of Friday’s pregame, he did not have a starter listed for Saturday.

Tanner Houck, who has been used in relief of late, is an option. But Cora was also holding out the possibility of the hard-throwing rookie being used out of the ‘pen if needed on Friday.

Assuming the Red Sox are still fighting for playoff position on Sunday, ace Chris Sale will start the regular-season finale.

“Let's play tonight and see what kind of usage there is, who we use, and then we'll make decisions accordingly,” Cora said.