Boston Red Sox at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Boston Red Sox

1-3, 1-3 Away

Final
1 - 8

Houston Astros

3-2, 3-2 Home

McCullers shines with 7 strong innings and Altuve's 2 homers power Astros past Red Sox 8-1

Jose Altuve goes yard for 2nd HR of evening

McCullers (1-0), who missed the 2023 and '24 seasons with injuries, allowed four hits and a run with nine strikeouts in his season debut. The home crowd gave the longtime Astro a nice ovation as he left the mound after his best start in years.

Altuve, who tied a career high with four hits, had solo shots in the seventh and eighth innings for his 15th career multi-homer game. Yordan Alvarez had a two-run home run and Brice Matthews also homered as Houston won a third straight game after dropping its first two.

The Astros led by one when Altuve singled to open Houston’s third before Alvarez sent his soaring shot into the second deck in right field to push the lead to 3-0.

Boston starter Ranger Suárez had retired six in a row when Matthews homered to left-center field to start the fifth and leave the Astros up 4-0.

Wilyer Abreu had two hits and drove in a run for the Red Sox, who have dropped three in a row since winning their opener.

Suárez (0-1) permitted seven hits and four runs with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.

The Astros added a run on a sacrifice fly by Yainer Diaz to make it 5-0 in the sixth.

McCullers retired the first seven batters before Carlos Narváez singled with one out in the third. But Ceddanne Rafaela grounded into a double play to end the inning.

McCullers struck out the side in the fourth and fanned Willson Contreras to open the fifth. Abreu singled after that, but Caleb Durbin grounded into a double play to end the inning.

There were runners at first and third with two outs in the seventh when Abreu hit a ground-rule double to make it 5-1.

Up next Boston RHP Brayan Bello makes his season debut against Houston RHP Hunter Brown, who pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings on opening day, when the series continues Tuesday night.

How can I watch Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros?

TV Channel: Red Sox at Astros 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
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Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Contreras grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Duran struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Story popped out to shortstop.
	9th Inning	Allen at third base.
	8th Inning	Alvarez grounded out to first.
	8th Inning	Altuve homered to left (368 feet).

Statistics

BOS		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
9	Ground Balls	11
12	Strikeouts	6
1	Runs Batted In	7
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
4	Hits	13
0	Stolen Bases	0
2	Walks	2
0	Catcher Interference	0
1	Runs	8
2	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
29	At Bats	34
0	Home Runs	4
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
9	Runners Left On Base	12
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
2	Doubles	2
8	Fly Balls	18
0	Caught Stealing	1
129	Pitches	148
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
6	Total Bases	27
31	Plate Appearances	38
0.0	Projected Home Runs	648.0
2	Extra Base Hits	6
0.0	Runs Created	9.5
.138	Batting Average	.382
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.207	Slugging Percentage	.794
.138	Secondary Average	.441
.194	On Base Percentage	.421
.400	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	1.215
1.1	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.6
0.0	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	10.7
12.0	Batter Rating	59.0
0.0	At Bats Per Home Run	8.5
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.16	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.89
.069	Isolated Power	.412
0.17	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.33
.065	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.053
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.059
2.0	Runs Produced	15.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	0.9
0.3	Patience Ratio	0.8
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.4
62.3	MLB Rating	108.0
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0