The Astros and Red Sox open a three-game series Friday, May 1, with Mike Burrows listed to start for Houston and Boston still showing a TBD pitcher. The matchup begins a weekend set that runs through Sunday, May 3, and it arrives with both teams trying to stop the slide that has defined the first month of their seasons.
Burrows, who has a 6.25 ERA and a 5.14 FIP, already saw Boston once this year. On April 1, he allowed two runs over 5.0 innings against the Red Sox, and last time out he held the Yankees to two runs in 5.0 innings. Over 31.2 innings, he has struck out 33 and walked 12.
Saturday brings Spencer Arrighetti against Connelly Early. Arrighetti has made three starts this season and carries a 2.00 ERA with a 3.67 FIP after holding the Rockies, Guardians and Yankees to four runs combined over 18 innings. He has 21 strikeouts and nine walks, a line that suggests the Astros may need him to keep missing bats if the series stays tight. Early, meanwhile, has a 2.84 ERA and a 4.60 FIP after pitching 6.2 innings in a win against the Orioles, when he allowed two solo home runs.
Sunday’s finale sends Ranger Suárez to the mound for Boston. Suárez threw 8.0 scoreless, one-hit innings with 10 strikeouts in Canada against Toronto, and he has put together 22 scoreless innings against the Jays, Tigers and Cardinals over the last month. His season debut came against the Astros on April 1, when he lasted 4.1 innings and allowed four runs.
The numbers behind the series are blunt. Houston is 12-20 and riding an eight-game losing streak, while Boston is 12-19 and has gone 1-2 against the Toronto Blue Jays to sit at.500 four games into its 135-game season. Houston also swept Boston at the start of March, which gives Friday’s game the feel of a chance for the Red Sox to push back quickly against a team they have not yet solved this year.
Boston’s problem is bigger than one weekend. The club needs wins against struggling teams while Garrett Crochet is out for at least two weeks, and Jake Bennett is expected to be called up after posting a 0.86 ERA in five starts with Worcester. That makes the rotation shuffle more than a short-term fix; it is part of how the Red Sox try to stay afloat while their depth is tested. For Houston, the concern is simpler and more immediate. A lineup that has not won in more than a week needs Burrows to steady Friday’s opener, because the rest of the series sets up against starters who have been far more effective lately than the records around them suggest.
