The Houston Astros are not used to looking up in the American League West standings.
While their first two games of a three-game road set against the Boston Red Sox have been a microcosm of an up-and-down season, a series win will be on the line when the teams return to the field on Sunday afternoon.
After being held in check in a 3-1 series-opening loss, the Astros looked like themselves on Saturday. Home runs by Brice Matthews and Christian Walker among the team’s 12 hits supported starter Spencer Arrighetti in a 6-3 win.
“That was a great baseball game,” Astros manager Joe Espada said of Saturday’s bounce-back victory. “Spencer really grinded through five innings. … We played really good defense. We turned some big double plays. I thought it was a really good team win.”
Saturday ended with some uncertainty for the Astros, though, as Walker was hit in the head by a Tyler Samaniego fastball and exited in the ninth inning.
“That’s always not a great situation, but I feel OK,” Walker said after a 3-for-4 day with two RBIs. “I think the helmet took most of it and turning away from (the pitch) hopefully made it more of a glancing blow than straight impact.”
With Houston trying to overcome injuries to Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai, Espada had not determined a Sunday starter before the series, and had his internal plan altered because of the flow of Saturday’s win.
Kai-Wei Teng was slated to start Sunday before throwing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief Saturday. Instead, Cody Bolton (0-1, 5.79 ERA) will get the ball for his fifth appearance and third start of the season in the finale.
“He’s a weapon,” Espada said of Teng. “Going into the game, we wanted to use him (Sunday) as the starter, but he’s also that bridge to our late-inning guys.”
Bolton allowed two runs in both of his starts, though one was as a one-inning opener. The right-hander last pitched the closing inning of Thursday’s doubleheader nightcap against the Baltimore Orioles.
Additionally, right-hander Ryan Weiss was set to rejoin the Astros in time for Sunday’s game after a stint on the paternity list.
Saturday continued Boston’s mixed bag of results under interim manager Chad Tracy, marking its third loss in four games since a three-game win streak.
Houston scored a first-inning run off Connelly Early and eventually built a 6-0 lead. In the end, the Red Sox dropped to 2-19 when their starting pitcher tosses fewer than six innings and 2-14 when their opponent scores first, failing to capitalize three times with the bases loaded.
“I think if you’re looking at positives, we created a ton of traffic, which is what we’ve talked about here,” Tracy said. “We want to give ourselves chances, right? We gave ourselves a lot of chances. When you get some of those, if you can pop a double or execute, it changes things.”
Wilyer Abreu (2-for-3, RBI) was a bright spot, reaching base four times.
Boston left-hander Ranger Suarez (2-2, 3.09) looks to break a winless career mark against Houston and build upon his second eight-inning outing of the season in three starts.
Suarez dominated the Blue Jays during his Monday start in Toronto, using his entire arsenal to strike out 10 while allowing just one hit and one walk across eight shutout frames.
“When I’m able to command my four-seam and my sinker, I think that opens the door for my secondary pitches to get swings and misses,” he said.
Suarez is 0-3 with a 6.60 ERA in three career starts against the Astros.
–Field Level Media
