Final: Red Sox 4, Houston Astros 5 - Red Sox allow 2 runs in final 2 inning in walk off loss to Astros

Trevor's Game Notes

Another bullpen disaster: The Red Sox lose the first game of their series 5-4 after Kenley Jansen allowed a walk off home run to Yanier Diaz in the bottom of the 9th. Tanner Houck had a quality start, allowing 2 earned runs and striking out 8 batters in 6 innings pitched. Just like their game against Texas a week ago, Boston was in front the majority of the game. They got an early 2 run lead in the 1st inning with the help of a Jarren Duran leadoff home run and Danny Jansen RBI. 

The Astros would tie the game in the 4th inning until Masataka Yoshida hit an opposite field pinch hit home run in the 6th inning to retake the lead for Boston.

Duran, Jansen, and Yoshida's hits were the only offensive that resulted in runs. The Red Sox went cold at the plate the rest of the game recording multiple 1-2-3 innings. Boston turned to their bullpen in the 7th inning, starting with a scoreless performance from Chris Martin. The Red Sox only needed to pitch two more scoreless innings to give them the victory, but failed to do so. Lucas Sims pitched in the 8th inning, allowing an RBI single from Mauricio Dubón that put the game at 4-4. This was even more unfortunate considering the Astros did this with 2 outs. In the 9th inning, both Houston and Boston brought out their closing pitchers. The Red Sox weren't able to produce any offense against Josh Hader, going 1-2-3. On the other hand, Kenley Jansen allowed the walk off home run to Yanier Diaz that gave Houston the 1st win in the series.

The Red Sox will continue their series tomorrow against Houston at 8:10 p.m.

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WHO: Red Sox (65-58) at Houston Astros (67-56)
WHEN: 8:10 p.m.
WHERE: Minute Maid Park, Houston
SERIES TO DATE: 0-3 (0-3/0-0)
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Tanner Houck (8-8, 3.01) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-9, 4.49)
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

LIVE BOX

LINEUPS

RED SOX

Jarren Duran CF
Tyler O'Neill RF
Rob Refsnyder LF
Rafael Devers 3B
Romy Gonzalez 2B
Danny Jansen C
Triston Casas 1B
Connor Wong DH
Ceddanne Rafaela SS

SP Tanner Houck

ASTROS

Jose Altuve (R) 2B
Yordan Alvarez (L) DH
Yainer Diaz (R) 1B
Jeremy Peña (R) SS
Victor Caratini (S) C
Jake Meyers (R) CF
Trey Cabbage (L) RF
Mauricio Dubón (R) LF
Shay Whitcomb (R) 3B

SP Yusei Kikuchi

WHAT'S UP

The Red Sox are playing the Astros for a 2nd time in the last 2 weeks, meeting in 6 out of a stretch of 13 games played from 8/9-21. They were swept by Houston in a 3-game series at Fenway Park from 8/9-11. This series will conclude a stretch of 12 out of 19 games in which BOS plays either TEX or HOU, from 8/2-21.

The Sox split a 4-game series with Baltimore yesterday, moving to 20-14-6 in series play on the season. They're 10-7-3 in both home and road series.

Masataka Yoshida has been one of the best hitters in baseball since July 1, hitting .348 with six homers, seven doubles and a .960 OPS in his last 37 games per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. However, he will not be in the lineup in today's game.

Making his first rehab appearance with the WooSox, Liam Hendriks threw 11 pitches (9 strikes) in a perfect fifth inning on Sunday. Hendriks' fastball reached a top speed of 95.6.

The Red Sox promoted Campbell to Triple-A Worcester on Sunday evening, a source confirmed to MassLive. He will now join Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel and Marcelo Mayer in Worcester.

Boston made a roster move for their bullpen, recalling righty Greg Weissert and sending lefty Bailey Horn down to Triple-A Worcester, per Chris Cotillo. Weissert spent the first four months of the season on the major league roster before being optioned to the minors on July 29. He posted a 2.52 ERA and struck out 27 batters in his first 25 innings through June 2 but then struggled for two months, posting a 6.23 ERA (15 earned runs in 21⅔ innings) in 15 appearances before being sent down.