HOUSTON — Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora was asked after a 4-1 win Sunday over the Astros if he uses the two recent series against Houston as a measuring stick for how good his team is.
“No, I don’t,” Cora said with a grin. “If I say that, then they’ve got bragging rights.”
Rafael Devers homered off Justin Verlander, and the Red Sox capitalized on two Houston errors to avoid a three-game sweep.
The banged-up Astros lost for just the fifth time in 22 games and finished the regular season 4-2 against the Red Sox, who beat them 4-1 in the ALCS last season on the way to a World Series championship.
“You see the scores,” said Cora, the Astros’ bench coach for their 2017 title before heading to Boston. “I know it’s early and I know where they’re at and I know where we’re at. We just both match up well. There are no secrets. It’s all execution. There were certain days where we didn’t execute, and today, they made some errors and we took advantage of that.”
Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3) held Houston to one run and four hits in six innings, improving to 5-1 in his last eight starts.
It was exactly the bounce-back outing he was hoping for after allowing six runs over five innings in a loss to Toronto last time out.
“It feels really good,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve been working these past four days on how I’m going to pitch, the game plan and everything, and it worked pretty good.”
Devers’ solo shot to center field in the fourth gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead. It was Devers’ seventh homer of the season and fourth in six games.
Boston extended its lead to 3-1 during a sloppy fifth inning for the AL West leaders. A one-out double by Eduardo Nunez was followed by errors from second baseman Yuli Gurriel and third baseman Alex Bregman on back-to-back plays, allowing Nunez to score.
“We didn’t play well, and we missed an opportunity to sweep those guys and really just misfired on a day where (Verlander) pitched well enough to keep us in the game and win,” Houston Manager AJ Hinch said. “I think we allowed ourselves to play a little mentally tired, a little physically tired. We’re beat up a little bit, so it wasn’t our day.”
Verlander (8-2) allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out six and walking none. He got his 2,800th career strikeout in the fourth inning against Michael Chavis and finished his day five strikeouts shy of Cy Young’s 2,806 for 21st all-time.
Verlander also threw two wild pitches, both in the third inning, after entering with none in 72 1/3 innings this season.
“Against a lineup like that, you’ve got to limit base runners, so when they get a couple guys on with infield hits, that makes it really tough,” Verlander said. “I was pleased to be able to keep the damage to a minimum but not happy with the results, obviously. We play this game to win, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Houston went up 1-0 in the first when Aledmys Diaz scored from second on a single by Carlos Correa that deflected off Devers’ glove at third base into shallow left field. Christian Vazquez couldn’t handle Nunez’s bouncing throw to the plate.
After the play, Diaz left the game because of left hamstring discomfort. Gurriel moved to second base and Tyler White entered at first.
Hinch said Diaz is likely headed to the injured list.
The Red Sox tied it in the second on a sacrifice fly from Andrew Benintendi that scored Steve Pearce.
Boston added an insurance run to make it 4-1 in the ninth. A walk to Jackie Bradley Jr. was followed by a balk from Framber Valdez, a passed ball and a groundout from Nunez that scored Bradley.
Marcus Walden pitched a scoreless inning for his second major league save and first this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Astros: Catcher Max Stassi (left knee soreness) was placed on the 10-day injured list. Garrett Stubbs was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock to back up Robinson Chirinos and could make his first major league start Tuesday, Manager AJ Hinch said. … Second baseman Jose Altuve (hamstring) was set to start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Round Rock on Sunday night.
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