breakdown<\/a> on his finesse style. But suffice it to say he\u2019s not blowing the world away with fastball velocity and is still really good. In eight years with the Phillies he put up a 3.38\/3.54 ERA\/FIP. He strikes out north of 20% of batters and over the last two years has dropped his walk percentage from about 9% to around 6%. He was a little behind thanks to some WBC usage but is still pitching in the fourth game of the season. He\u2019s opposed by veteran Lane McCullers Jr., the first of three righties the Astros are starting. McCullers missed all of 2023 and 2024 due to injury and pitched in 16 games (13 starts) in 2025. The results were bad. He only tossed 8.0 innings this spring and while his walks and Ks were both going in the wrong direction, it was still just 8.0 innings. And even as he struggled in 2025 he was striking out nearly 10 batters per 9 innings. He\u2019s possibly closer to 2022 than 2025. Can the lefty leaning Sox set him back?<\/p>\nThe next debut day features Brayan Bello. Bello was brilliant for several months until a rough period down the stretch to close out the 2025 season. Asking Bello to be the #2 may have been too much, even when he shows flashes of great starts. But in the back half of the rotation? He might be the best #4 in the business. He made one start for the Dominican Republic and the WBC and looked good. He was good in Spring Training. These are small samples against varied competition but if he\u2019s healthy he does have the ability to pitch well. Hunter brown finished third in the AL Cy Young voting behind Tarik Skubal and, of course, Garrett Crochet. In his first start of the season he tossed 4.2 scoreless innings while striking out 9. No walks, just four hits.<\/p>\n
Boston follows up with the other Cy Young finalist: Garrett Crochet. Crochet basically didn\u2019t miss a beat: 6.0 innings, 8 Ks, 2 BBs, 3 hits, no runs. The Pig is back at it. Mike Burrows for the Astros, however, wasn\u2019t welcomed as warmly to the 2026 season. Over 5.2 innings Burrows gave up 9 hits (2 home runs), allowed 5 runs, walked 2, and struck out 6. Acquired in a three-team trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates that included the Tampa Bay Rays, this was his first outing as part of the Astros organization. The 25-year-old threw 96 innings for the Pirates in 2025 with a 3.94\/4.00 ERA\/FIP and 97 Ks vs 31 walks. It remains to be seen if the Astros get a little more out of him than Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
After one series Wilyer Abreu is red hot.<\/p>\n
Willson Contreras and Caleb Durbin are cold.<\/p>\n
Connor Wong already has two hits.<\/p>\n
And after this series it\u2019s time for the home opener at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n
Probable Pitching Matchups<\/p>\n
Monday, March 30: Ranger Su\u00e1rez (\u2014 ERA \/ \u2014 FIP) vs. Lance McCullers Jr. (\u2014 ERA \/ \u2014 FIP)<\/p>\n
Tuesday, March 31: Brayan Bello (\u2014 ERA \/ \u2014 FIP) vs. Hunter Brown (0.00 ERA \/ 1.63 FIP)<\/p>\n
Wednesday, April 1: Garrett Crochet (0.00 ERA \/ 1.24 FIP) vs. Mike Burrows (7.94 ERA \/ 6.44 FIP)<\/p>\n
Monday, March 30 at 8:10 PM ET on NESN<\/p>\n
Tuesday, March 31: 8:10 PM ET on NESN<\/p>\n
Wednesday, April 1: 2:10 PM ET on NESN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Opening Day and the first series of the year under their belts, the Red Sox stay on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,88300],"class_list":["post-228308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-red-sox-game-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}