Red Sox sweep the Astros in crucial weekend series; Boston creeping up on Toronto in AL East standings

Believe it or not, the Red Sox are just three games behind the Blue Jays for first place in the American League East.

The Red Sox welcomed the Astros to Fenway Park for a crucial three-game series coming out of the trade deadline and swept Houston, led by quality pitching and a scrappy offense.

Boston pounded Houston on Sunday, defeating them 6-1, leading the Sox to five wins in their last seven. The Red Sox are now sitting on top of the American League wild card, leapfrogging the struggling Yankees in the process.

“We’ve got a complete team,” manager Alex Cora said. “Guys are playing with an edge now; you can tell.”

The weekend sweep was impressive; the Sox grabbed a walk-off win in 10 innings on Friday night, highlighted by Cooper Criswell’s gem.

Criswell held Houston to one run in seven innings, giving up seven hits while striking out four. He was incredibly efficient and threw 84 pitches in the outing. The Red Sox optioned Criswell following the game to make room for new starter Dustin May, who the club acquired from the Dodgers during the final hour leading up to the trade deadline. He's had limited chances to pitch for the Red Sox this season, pitching six times in relief and owning a 5.06 ERA before his start.

For the second straight outing, Walker Buehler failed to get through five innings, going just 4 1/3 innings, allowing nine hits, three runs, and three walks.

He was helped by two big double plays during his outing and faced 23 batters without recording a strikeout. It was just the second time in 141 starts that Buehler went without a strikeout. The other time was in 2019 against the Diamondbacks. Buehler owns a 5.74 ERA in 19 starts for the Red Sox this season. Boston has won 11 of those games he’s started.

“Not good. Definitely not good,” Buehler said after the game. “I feel like I got in a decent little rhythm there in the middle, but I just couldn’t make the big pitch with two strikes to even get a strikeout, let alone kind of get us through the game the way I needed to.

“But that’s why it’s so fun to be on a team like this that scores early, scores often, and gets you a lead that I can kind of dilly-dally out there for a while and whatever, and a great bullpen can come in and finish it all for us… Yeah, it’s just inconsistent and frustrating, but I like winning (as a team) more than I like winning myself, honestly. I think being a part of a team like this is special, especially that it kind of hasn’t been done like this in a while here. I just would like to contribute.”

The Red Sox did not add a No. 2 starter at the trade deadline; instead, they acquired Dustin May, who will make his first start with the Sox on Wednesday against the Royals.

Lucas Giolito stepped up in a big way on Sunday, making his longest start of the season, tossing eight innings while allowing just one run, three hits, and one walk while striking out four. Giolito’s only blemish came in the fourth after he allowed a 411-foot homer over the Green Monster that broke a scoreless tie. The righty saw a decrease in his velocity, topping out at 96.1 mph and averaging 92.8 mph, which is down from his 93.5 mph average this season, according to Statcast.

“You want to handle business with teams that aren’t performing well this year, but when it comes to top-of-division teams, whether it be AL or NL, it’s about continuing to play hard games,” Giolito said.

Giolito, not known for being a morning person, had to prep himself for an early 11:35 a.m. start time due to MLB’s three-year deal with Roku.

“It’s not very fun,” Giolito said. “Ever since I was a kid I would stay up super late reading, and then it turned into super late playing video games. And I’ve just done that ever since. I like to say I prime myself for 7 p.m. being my locked-in hours. But obviously you have to make an adjustment for a day like today.”

He began altering his routine earlier in the week to be ready for Sunday’s early morning start.

“Like the whole week leading up,” Giolito said. “Try and get to bed earlier. I’d say it’s more important waking up earlier, getting yourself up, getting outside, and moving around. Then it kind of puts you in a better position to where when I woke up this morning I wasn’t horribly groggy.”

Giolito went to sleep at midnight Saturday, which he said is “very early” for him. He got a solid eight hours. Boston did give Giolito an option on whether to remain on normal rest and pitch Sunday or start on Wednesday. The righty felt it was important to remain “on schedule” without ““too many days of rest.”

“You guys saw it with the All-Star break. That was like nine days off," he said. “I really hate it. I’ve always been a proponent of cancel the All Star break. That’s never going to happen.”

Giolito owns a 4.82 ERA in 42 career starts on six or more days of rest in his career.

“I like pitching every fifth day. And if it has to be the sixth day, so be it with an off day or something like that,” Giolito said. “But I’ve always preferred pitching every fifth day. So when I was presented with the opportunity to skip the morning game and pitch a few days later or pitch the morning game, as much as I don’t like mornings, I’m going to take the morning game."

Craig Breslow was highly criticized by Red Sox fans and media for only making two lesser moves at the trade deadline. He was pleased with his team’s performance following the sweep of the Astros.

“It’s a really resilient group that’s confident in each other and coming together at exactly the right time in exactly the right way,” Breslow said. “I think there’s a lot to be excited about and reason for optimism. We’ve got to go out and keep playing the way that we do. But I’m not sure there was going to be a ton that was or wasn’t going to happen coming out in the deadline that was going to kind of knock these guys off the path they’re on.”

Giolito has been emerging as the Red Sox' No. 2 starter behind Garrett Crochet. Since July 10, Giolito is 6-1 with a 2.03 ERA, and 0.95 WHIP and has struck out 23.4% of the batters he’s faced. In comparison, Crochet is 6-0 with a 2.03 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 30.5% strikeout rate.

Trevor Story enjoyed a huge series, going yard on Saturday, pacing the Sox to a 7-3 win. The shortstop was 2-for-3, including his third-inning homer, which was his third blast in four games, and added a game-tying RBI single in Sunday’s victory. He’s been locked in at the plate, knocking in eight runs over his last five games, dating back to July 29. He’s hitting .300 since June 1 with an .886 OPS with 11 homers and 46 RBI over that span. Boston is 16-1 this season when Story hits a home run. 

Roman Anthony delivered his first major league walk-off RBI Friday night. Anthony’s RBI single sailed over Astros center fielder Taylor Trammell’s head and scored Wilyer Abreu, the extra-inning automatic runner, from third base.

“It’s amazing. It’s fun. I want to do it again already,” Anthony said.

The Sox’ rookie fell down 0-2 against Astros reliever Bennett Sousa before laying off on the next two pitches and later drilled a 95.8 mph fastball for the game-winning hit.

“You can’t say enough (about) how poised he is,” Story said. “The moment is never too big for him. He’s just so calm in there. It’s like he’s been there for 10 years. So it’s awesome to see. He’s gonna be doing that for a long time.”

Boston will look to remain hot as they welcome the Royals to Fenway Park for a three-game series that is set to begin on Monday night. Kansas City has won four series in a row and nine of their last 13 games since dropping the series with the Marlins to open the second-half. They sit just 3 1/2 games behind the Mariners for the final AL wild-card spot. The Royals made a flurry of moves ahead of the trade deadline, acquiring three pitchers, Bailey Falter, Ryan Bergert, and Stephen Kolek—alongside outfielders Mike Yastrzemski, Randal Grichuk, and Adam Frazier.

Falter, Bergert, and Kolek provide crucial depth for their rotation with Cole Ragans, Michael Lorenzen, and Kris Bubic on the injured list. The Royals will start Falter in the series opener; he will be opposed by Brayan Bello. In his last two starts, Falter has allowed two earned runs while striking out nine in 12 innings. Bergert arrived from the Padres, and he owns a 2.78 ERA in 11 games (seven starts) while holding opponents to a .186 batting average. Former Red Sox righty Michael Wacha will pitch in the series finale against May.

Kansas City’s offense has been locked in post-All-Star break, scoring five runs or more in nine of the 15 games played. Catcher Salvador Perez has led the way with seven home runs and 12 RBIs.

The Red Sox shouldn’t take the Royals lightly, and another series win will help set up momentum for the Red Sox’ weekend series on the road in San Diego.