ARCHIVE March 31, 2026
March 31, 2026 · AL West

Boston Red Sox vs Houston Astros

March 31, 2026Daikin ParkRoof Closed 73°F · 0 mph, None
AWAY
Boston Red Sox
1-4
2
vs
HOME
Houston Astros
4-2
9

Starting pitchers

AWAY · BOS
Brayan Bello
Brayan Bello
IP 4.2
HOME · HOU
Hunter Brown
Hunter Brown
IP 6

Lineups

AWAY · BOS
  1. 1 Roman Anthony LF
  2. 2 Trevor Story SS
  3. 3 Masataka Yoshida DH
  4. 4 Willson Contreras 1B
  5. 5 Wilyer Abreu RF
  6. 6 Andruw Monasterio 3B
  7. 7 Marcelo Mayer 2B
  8. 8 Connor Wong C
  9. 9 Ceddanne Rafaela CF
HOME · HOU
  1. 1 Jeremy Peña SS
  2. 2 Yordan Alvarez DH
  3. 3 Jose Altuve 2B
  4. 4 Carlos Correa 3B
  5. 5 Christian Walker 1B
  6. 6 Joey Loperfido LF
  7. 7 Cam Smith RF
  8. 8 Yainer Diaz C
  9. 9 Jake Meyers CF

Box score

  123456789 R
BOS 000010010 2
HOU 102032100 9

Manager comparison

Both managers grade C- / D+ entering this matchup.

AWAY · BOS
Chad Tracy
C- Lineup 2.8 R Bunts 0.1 R IBBs 0.2 R Interim
HOME · HOU
Joe Espada
D+ Lineup 2.8 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.4 R

Recent form

AWAY · BOS
5-5 W1 -3 run diff
WLWWWLLWLL
HOME · HOU
5-4 W1 -2 run diff
WLWLWWLLW?

Season series: 1-2 with BOS listed first across 3 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · Boston Red Sox
  • Manager lineup cost +0.10 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 2.41 vs actual lineup 2.31
  • Player execution −0.31 R/G Players fell 0.31 short of the lineup's 2.31 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −0.41 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Rafaela HR from the 9-hole

HOME · Houston Astros
  • Manager lineup cost +0.28 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.84 vs actual lineup 4.56
  • Player execution +4.44 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.56 projection by 4.44 (scored 9)
  • Game variance +4.16 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Smith HR from the 7-hole

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 2.4 – 4.8 — actual was 2 – 9.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.