BREAKING OUT THE BIG BATS
Altuve, Singleton and Peña fuel Astros' win over Red Sox
Aug 9, 2024, 9:53 pm
BREAKING OUT THE BIG BATS
Jose Altuve hit two-run homer and Jon Singleton and Jeremy Peña added RBI singles in a four-run seventh inning as the AL West-leading Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox 8-4 on Friday night.
ALTUVE TIES IT UP!!#RELENTLESS pic.twitter.com/2iW8g0v4dz
— Houston Astros (@astros) August 10, 2024
Yainer Diaz added a two-run homer for the Astros, who pounded Boston's bullpen on the way to their third straight win. Bregman and Peña finished with three hits apiece.
We ain't afraid of Monsters over here. pic.twitter.com/zGDbr7PU1Y
— Houston Astros (@astros) August 10, 2024
Altuve’s homer off reliever Lucas Sims that tied the game in the seventh inning was the 224th of his career. That moved him into fourth place on the team's all-time list.
David Hamilton had a two-run double for the Red Sox, who had won three of four and were coming off a 4-2 road trip. Boston’s bullpen gave up seven runs and 12 hits in the last three innings.
Starter Tanner Houck held the Astros to one run and four hits over six innings before Altuve hit a hanging sweeper from Sims (1-5) that caromed off a billboard above the Green Monster.
Bregman and Yordan Alvarez followed with singles before Diaz hit a single off Zack Kelly, loadding the bases. Singleton and Peña each lined a hit to center before Zach Dezenzo bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Reliever Tayler Scott struck out Boston star Rafael Devers swinging with the bases loaded in the seventh.
Diaz hit his shot, his 11th of the season, through a light rain and over the Green Monster in the ninth.
Former Red Sox reliever Kaleb Ort (1-0) got four outs and earned the victory.
Boston manager Alex Cora elected to walk Alvarez with runners on the corners and two outs in the fifth. Houck got the next hitter, Diaz, to bounce to short.
Trailing 1-0, Hamilton lined his two-run shot into the left-center gap off Ronel Blanco.
Blanco bounced a pickoff attempt past first, allowing Nick Sogard to score from third, making it 3-1 Boston in the fourth.
Blanco gave up three runs, two earned, in four innings in his first career start against the Red Sox.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Astros: RHP Justin Verlander is slated to make a rehab start for Triple-A Sugar Land on Saturday. Manager Joe Espada said the plan was for him to go three innings or 50 pitches, “and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
Red Sox: Placed RHP Brayan Bello on the paternity list, but Cora said he’ll make his scheduled start Monday. However, Saturday’s scheduled starter, Cooper Criswell, was placed on the COVID-19 injured list.
UP NEXT
Astros rookie RHP Spencer Arrighetti (4-10, 5.33 ERA) hopes to build off his best start of the season in Saturday’s second of a three-game series. He struck out 12 and allowed a run in six innings Sunday against Tampa Bay. Cora didn’t have a starter after Criswell came down with COVID.
Alex Bregman couldn’t hold back the smile when he was asked who might have had the biggest impact on his decision to sign with the Boston Red Sox.
“My favorite player Dustin Pedroia,” Bregman said of the club's former second baseman and two-time World Series champion.
“He reached out a few times this offseason and talked about how special it was to be a part of the Boston Red Sox,” Bregman said Sunday. “It was really cool to be able to talk to him as well as so many other former players here in Boston and current players on the team as well.”
A day after Bregman's $120 million, three-year contract was announced, he sat at a 25-minute news conference between his agent, Scott Boras, and Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. Manager Alex Cora, who gave Bregman a hug after he handed the infielder his No. 2 jersey, also was at the table along with team president Sam Kennedy.
Breslow and Cora wouldn't say whether Bregman would move to play second base, Pedroia's position, or remain at third — a position manned by Rafael Devers since July 2017.
A few players, Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder among them, and coaches stood behind the seated reporters to listen.
Bregman gets a $5 million signing bonus, a $35 million salary this season and $40 million in each of the following two years, with some of the money deferred, and he can opt out after the 2025 and 2026 seasons to become a free agent again.
Asked why he agreed to the shorter contract with opt outs, he leaned forward to the microphone in front of him and replied: “I just think I believe in my abilities.”
Originally selected by Boston in the 29th round of the 2012 amateur draft, Bregman attended LSU before the Houston Astros picked him second overall in 2015. His family history with the Red Sox goes back further.
“My dad grew up sitting on Ted Williams’ lap,” he said.
MLB.com said Stan Bregman, the player's grandfather, was a lawyer who represented the Washington Senators and negotiated Williams' deal to become manager.
Boston has missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons and had avoided signing the highest-profile free agents. Boras said a conversation with Red Sox controlling owner John Henry showed ownership’s desire to get back to winning.
“I think it was after Soto signed,’’ Boras said, citing the record contract he negotiated for Juan Soto with the Mets. “We had a discussion. I could tell knowing John back with the Marlins and such, he had a real onus about ‘we need to do things differently than what we’ve done before.’
“This is a point and time where I believe Red Sox ownership was hungry for championship play and exhausted with what had happened the last five, six years.”
Called the “perfect fit” by Breslow, the 30-year-old Bregman joined the Red Sox after winning two World Series titles and reaching the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons with Houston.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the playoffs the first eight years of my career, and I plan on continuing to do that here,” he said in his opening remarks. “I’m a winning player and this is a winning organization.”
Coming off an 81-81 season, the Red Sox acquired left-hander Garrett Crochet from the White Sox and signed fellow pitchers Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval, Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson during the offseason.
After the pitching moves, they found a right-handed bat, too.
“As the offseason progressed it just became clearer and clearer that Alex was the perfect fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Breslow said.
Bregman ranks first among players with at least 75 career plate appearances in Fenway Park with an OPS of 1.240.
“He fits like a glove for our organization,” Kennedy said.