ARCHIVE April 1, 2026
April 1, 2026 · AL West

Boston Red Sox vs Houston Astros

April 1, 2026Daikin ParkRoof Closed 73°F · 0 mph, None
AWAY
Boston Red Sox
1-5
4
vs
HOME
Houston Astros
5-2
6

Starting pitchers

AWAY · BOS
Garrett Crochet
Garrett Crochet
IP 5
HOME · HOU
Mike Burrows
Mike Burrows
IP 5

Lineups

AWAY · BOS
  1. 1 Jarren Duran LF
  2. 2 Trevor Story SS
  3. 3 Masataka Yoshida DH
  4. 4 Willson Contreras 1B
  5. 5 Wilyer Abreu RF
  6. 6 Caleb Durbin 3B
  7. 7 Ceddanne Rafaela CF
  8. 8 Isiah Kiner-Falefa 2B
  9. 9 Connor Wong C
HOME · HOU
  1. 1 Jose Altuve 2B
  2. 2 Yordan Alvarez DH
  3. 3 Isaac Paredes 3B
  4. 4 Carlos Correa SS
  5. 5 Christian Walker 1B
  6. 6 Cam Smith RF
  7. 7 Jake Meyers CF
  8. 8 Brice Matthews LF
  9. 9 Christian Vázquez C

Box score

  123456789 R
BOS 110000011 4
HOU 200030100 6

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
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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 +0.07 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.86 vs actual lineup 4.78
  • Player execution −0.78 R/G Players fell 0.78 short of the lineup's 4.78 projection (scored 4)
  • Game variance −0.86 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Anthony HR from the 8-hole

HOME · Houston Astros
  • Manager lineup cost +0.06 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.82 vs actual lineup 4.76
  • Player execution +1.24 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.76 projection by 1.24 (scored 6)
  • Game variance +1.18 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Vázquez HR from the 9-hole

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 4.9 – 4.8 — actual was 4 – 6.

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.