The Boston Red Sox will look to avoid a sweep Thursday afternoon when they wrap up a four-game series with the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros won the first three games, including a 2-1 nail-biter Wednesday night, thanks in large to some solid starting pitching. Houston has held Boston’s potent offense in check, with the Red Sox mustering up just four runs in the series thus far.
Danny Santana will lead off for Boston with Kiké Hernández out of the lineup. The Red Sox haven’t received much production from atop their order recently, so it’ll be interesting to see how manager Alex Cora continues to handle the leadoff spot moving forward.
Santana will start in center field, sandwiched between Alex Verdugo in left field and Hunter Renfroe in right field.
Christian Arroyo (second base), Kevin Plawecki (catcher) and Bobby Dalbec (first base) will round out the lineup as the Red Sox try to gain their footing before traveling to the Bronx for a three-game weekend series with the New York Yankees.
MartÃn Pérez, who has won three straight starts for Boston, will face Jake Odorizzi in Thursday’s series finale in Houston, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET. You can catch a full hour of pregame coverage on NESN beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
Here are the full lineups for Red Sox vs. Astros.
RED SOX (32-23)
Danny Santana, CF
Alex Verdugo, LF
J.D. Martinez, DH
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Rafael Devers, 3B
Hunter Renfroe, RF
Christian Arroyo, 2B
Kevin Plawecki, C
Bobby Dalbec, 1B
MartÃn Pérez, LHP (3-2, 3.55 ERA)
ASTROS (31-24)
Jose Altuve, 2B
Aledmys DÃaz, SS
Alex Bregman, 3B
Yordan Alvarez, DH
Yuli Gurriel, 1B
Taylor Jones, LF
Chas McCormick, RF
Myles Straw, CF
Garrett Stubbs, C
Jake Odorizzi, RHP (0-2, 6.75 ERA)
