The Red Sox look to get back in the win column tonight and avoid falling three games under .500 in the first swing through the rotation.
On the mound, they’ll have Brayan Bello, who is very much the definition of Trick or Treat. At times (including much of last summer), he looks like a top of the rotation starter you want out there to end a losing streak. Unfortunately, at other times (like in Game 2 of the Wild Card series last October), he rides the edge of disaster and puts the team behind the 8-ball.
If the Sox are going to win tonight, they’re likely going to need the first guy to show up because the lineup will be facing Hunter Brown who finished third in Cy Young voting last year and didn’t allow a run his first time out.
To try and generate a spark (and also to just rotate guys in there), Alex Cora shook up the lineup in a few spots. Masataka Yoshida is in the third slot, Jaren Duran and Caleb Durbin will start the evening on the bench, and Connor Wong will do the catching instead of Carlos Narvaez.
Perhaps the best thing the Red Sox have going for them in this one is that all the high leverage relievers are rested after the team got their doors blown off yesterday, which means if they can keep it tight in the early innings, they might be able to pull one out late.
⚾️ First Pitch: 8:10 pm – Daikin Park (Formally Minute Maid and Enron Field), Houston, Texas