After getting outscored 20-3 over their first two games with the Padres, the Red Sox are just hoping to avoid getting swept on Sunday.

(That’s without the injured Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the San Diego lineup, too.)

But Sunday will be a unique experience for the Boston bats, and for many, if not all, a first. They’re facing right-hander Matt Waldron, whose pitching arsenal is headlined by a knuckleball.

He also presents a challenge for the Red Sox lineup. As the only active knuckleballer in the Majors, he’s an enigma to most hitters, and it works to his benefit.

“I don’t think these guys have, none of these guys have seen a knuckleball probably, not that I know,” Alex Cora said Sunday morning, before his customary hitters’ meetings. “If you see it high, let it fly, I guess. That’s basically the thing, right? If you see it low, let it go.”

Though the right-hander, 27, doesn’t use the pitch nearly as much as the late, great Tim Wakefield, it’s the one he throws more than any other, nearly 40% of the time. Waldron’s repertoire also includes a four-seamer, sweeper, sinker, and little-used cutter. According to Baseball Savant, he ranks in the 83rd MLB percentile or higher in breaking run value (95th), average exit velocity (83rd), and hard-hit rate (88th).

“It’s a good one,” Cora said of Waldron’s knuckleball. “And he has other pitches. He’s not like, 75% knuckleballs, he’s 40%. He has good velo too, more like R.A. Dickey early on, so just gotta be ready.”

It will be a bittersweet moment when Waldron’s first knuckleball flutters from the Boston mound. Wakefield, one of the greatest, most beloved knuckleballers in baseball history called Fenway home for 17 seasons as a player, and over a decade as a broadcaster. Not only is Waldron following in Wakefield’s footsteps, but he credits some of his success to the work he did with the man himself.  As children, Waldron and his twin brother first learned the knuckleballer from playing Wakefield in a video game, then looked up photos of the Red Sox pitcher’s grip and began practicing it in their yard. He didn’t begin using it professionally until 2021, when he was a minor leaguer in the Padres system. When he did, the organization put him in touch with Wakefield.

When Wakefield, who’d been battling brain cancer, passed away suddenly on October 1 – the final day of the 2023 regular season – Waldron told the Boston Globe he “was bawling the entire day in the dugout.”

When the Padres arrived at Fenway, longtime Red Sox clubhouse manager Tommy McLaughlin sent a Wakefield cap and one of the ’49’ patches the Sox are wearing on their jerseys this season over to the visitors’ clubhouse for Waldron.

Red Sox lineup (June 30)

Jarren Duran LF

David Hamilton SS

Wilyer Abreu RF

Rafael Devers 3B

Enmanuel Valdez 2B

Masataka Yoshida DH

Dom Smith 1B

Reese McGuire

Ceddanne Rafaela CF

Padres lineup (June 30)

Luis Arraez 1B

Jurickson Profar LF

Jake Cronenworth 2B

Manny Machado DH

Donovan Solano 3B

Jackson Merrill CF

Ha-Seong Kim SS

Kyle Higashioka C

Bryce Johnson RF

Red Sox vs. Padres probable starting pitchers

RHP Josh Winckowski (3.26 ERA) vs. RHP Matt Waldron (3.43 ERA)

How to watch Red Sox vs. Padres

When: 1:35 p.m. ET

Where: Fenway Park

TV: NESN

Red Sox radio: WEEI 93.7 FM, WCCM 1490 AM (Spanish)