Boston, MA
Red Sox offseason pitching additions clobbered by Astros in 2026 debuts
Beyond Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony on Opening Day, and Wilyer Abreu, in general, not much is going right for the Boston Red Sox in the first games of the 2026 season.
After dropping the last two games of their opening series in Cincinnati, the underwhelming road trip moved on to Houston, where two Red Sox offseason pitching additions were hit hard in their team debuts and Boston lost its most lopsided game yet to the Astros, 8-1, on Monday night.
Left-hander Ranger Suárez lasted 4 1/3 innings and allowed four earned runs on seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts. He gave up home runs to Yordan Alvarez and Brice Matthews.
“There was some good,” manager Alex Cora told reporters of Suárez, “and there were some things that we’ve got to work (on).”
Suarez, whose five-year, $130 million contract is the fourth-richest for a pitcher in franchise history, is coming off a peculiar spring training in which he missed a significant portion of camp due to the World Baseball Classic, but ultimately only pitched once in Team Venezuela’s championship run. He told reporters health wasn’t a factor in Monday’s performance.
“Obviously it wasn’t the result that we all wanted, but physically I felt good,” Suárez said via team translator.
Johan Oviedo, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in December, relieved Suárez but the Astros kept scoring. Yainer Diaz plated Houston’s fifth run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Jose Altuve took Oviedo deep on the first pitch of the bottom of the seventh, and Christian Walker’s double high off the wall made it 7-1, before Altuve homered off Oviedo again in the eighth.
“The little man (Altuve) got him,” Cora said. “That’s what he does.”
While the Astros blasted Suárez and Oviedo, Lance McCullers Jr. made mincemeat of the Boston bats. Over seven practically-perfect innings, he yielded just one earned run on four hits, one walk and nine strikeouts.
McCullers retired the first seven Red Sox batters before allowing a baserunner. He faced the minimum three batters per inning until one out in the seventh, because the first two Boston batters to reach – Carlos Narváez and Wilyer Abreu on one-out singles in the third and fifth innings, respectively – immediately became part of inning-ending double plays.
“He was really good,” Cora said of McCullers. “We didn’t put pressure on him early on. … And then when we had him on the ropes, he went to his breaking ball.”
Anthony’s fourth-inning flyout was Boston’s only hard-hit ball with a positive launch angle until the top of the seventh, when the Red Sox briefly broke through and ensured they would at least avoid being shut out.
With one out in the seventh, Trevor Story lined a ball to left and dove into second with a swim move that flipped him over and sent Altuve rolling away from the bag. On his back with his right hand on the base and his legs in the air, Story, who was initially called out, immediately began gesturing emphatically with his left hand. Upon review, the veteran shortstop was safe at second with a double.
Jarren Duran joined Story on the bases with a walk, and though Willson Contreras’ force-out sent Story back to the dugout, Abreu’s ground-rule double brought Duran home to score. Pinch-hitting for Caleb Durbin, who is now 0 for 14 to begin his Red Sox career, Masataka Yoshida forced McCullers to throw eight pitches before he struck out to end the inning.
Marcelo Mayer led off the eighth with a walk against Astros reliever Ryan Weiss, but the Red Sox rally bid ended there. Weiss retired the next six Boston batters.
The Red Sox tallied just four hits, two walks and struck out 12 times. Four games into the MLB season they’ve struck out 41 times, ninth-most in the majors, and scored 11 runs, tied for fourth-fewest.
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The Boston Red Sox are currently resisting becoming significant sellers in the trade market. At the moment, Boston sits last in the American League East at eight games under .500. Despite entering 2026 with high hopes, the club has struggled mightily during the first half of the season. Because of this, many believe that the Red Sox will make some significant moves this summer.
Nevertheless, WEEI’s Rob Bradford is now reporting that Boston officials are rebuffing outside interest in three key relief pitchers. According to Bradford, teams asking about the possible availability of Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, and Justin Slaten are being turned away. The reporter, however, specifically claims that the club is rejecting potential offers as of right now.
The situation regarding the trio could certainly change in the near future. Assuming the Red Sox continue to falter, team officials may eventually opt to offload the standout relievers. So far this season, Chapman, Whitlock, and Slaten have been three of the team’s top pitchers in their bullpen. Chapman has allowed one earned run all season, while Whitlock and Slaten have provided stability working ahead of the closer.
Whitlock has been out of action since landing on the injured list on May 28 with knee inflammation. The reliever is expected to return to Boston’s bullpen in the coming days, though. Chapman is also dealing with an injury issue. Red Sox manager Chad Tracy confirmed on June 5 that the closer is enduring a “minor hamstring” problem. So far, Chapman has avoided the IL.
Boston Red Sox Eyeing Other Deals as Chapman, Whitlock, and Slaten are Off Limits
GettyAroldis Chapman would receive plenty of interest if the Boston Red Sox opt to trade him.
While the Boston Red Sox are holding on to their top relievers for now, they are willing to offload Connor Wong. According to The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey, team officials are gauging interest in the backup catcher. The veteran backstop is available for trade because Boston has three catchers on the roster. Along with Wong, the Red Sox also have Carlos Narvaez and Mickey Gasper at the position. McCaffrey believes that Boston prefers to keep Gasper over Wong.
The Red Sox, however, are also being linked with making a key addition to the roster. ESPN’s Buster Olney recently claimed that Boston is specifically looking to acquire a right-handed hitter. With Trevor Story and Caleb Durbin struggling, Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela are currently the club’s two most prominent righties in the lineup. Not only are the Red Sox eyeing a new bat, but they are willing to spend significant money to do so.
Boston Likely to Become Sellers if Struggles Continue
Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has admitted that the club is being patient in the trade market. According to Breslow, it is just too early in the season to really commit to being a buyer or seller. The exec also claimed that while he is having “a lot of conversations” with other teams, he still believes that his current roster can turn things around.
Nevertheless, the situation can change fairly rapidly if Boston does not start to improve quickly. The Red Sox are already 11 games back in the division and have to jump six other teams to be in a wild card place. Boston will try to get a win streak going when they face the New York Yankees on Saturday, June 6.
Christopher Moore Christopher Moore has been a Heavy.com contributor since 2025. With over a decade of experience in the industry, he has published thousands of articles reporting on multiple professional sports. He was previously a sports writer for World Soccer Talk, the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and the Maryland Sports Blog. More about Christopher Moore
There isn’t a whole lot of heat in this version of the rivalry, but this one felt — and mostly looked — good. The Sox started with a former Yankee, Gray, who matched his season-high with 6⅓ innings, and closed with a former Yankee, Aroldis Chapman, who worked around a pair of walks in the ninth inning to record the save.
Willson Contreras and Andruw Monasterio hit home runs off lefthander Ryan Weathers (six innings, five runs). Contreras added another hit and RBI, and Monasterio snared Anthony Volpe’s line drive up the middle for a rally-killing unassisted double play in the fourth.
“Just a great game all around,” said interim manager Chad Tracy, who visited the current Yankee Stadium for the first time in any capacity.
Gray said: “There was definitely some juice.”
Chapman limped around the mound a bit in pursuit of the save because he has been dealing with a minor hamstring issue for about a week, Tracy said. But he has managed it and was able to pitch in the series opener, albeit wildly.
“We’re keeping an eye on it, but he’s grinding,” Tracy said. “He did a nice job. He obviously didn’t have his command the first couple of hitters, but then, like he always does, bears down and got it done.”
In his return to Yankee Stadium, a personal house of horrors through the years, including his 2017-18 stint with the Yankees, Gray limited the damage to three runs and eight hits. Ben Rice and Trent Grisham tagged him for home runs, but Gray was relieved that they were solo shots — acceptable on a night when he had “not even close” to his sharpest repertoire, he said.
He lowered his ERA in the Bronx to 5.95.
Gray’s outing featured virtually no pushback from the announced crowd of 43,750 (not a sellout).
In December, upon joining the Red Sox via trade with the Cardinals, Gray said that he “never wanted to go [to the Yankees] in the first place” and that it “feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees.” His comments triggered an outrage cycle in New York.
Six months later, New York fans seemed indifferent about it. Gray garnered only a smattering of boos during pregame introductions, when the stands were not even half-full, and no discernable crowd reaction during the game.
Gray wondered if heightened emotion on his side led to his not being in top form.
“I’ll learn from it and be able to control my emotions and my energy and be able to just make pitches,” he said. “Felt really good, but I felt like my stuff just stayed up … It was fun. I’ve been back here and pitched, but first time with the Red Sox. But I’m glad we came away with a win.”
The Sox (27-35) took the lead for good in the third, when Contreras’s two-out check swing resulted in a soft bouncer to the third-base side of the mound. He beat it out for a single.
In the fifth, after the Yankees (37-26) had cut the deficit back to one, Contreras opened it up again with a two-run shot into the second deck in left field.
Lefthander Danny Coulombe relieved Gray in the seventh and got the final two outs of the inning. The last one was harder, though, because Contreras and Monasterio collided and dropped a foul pop from Rice. Monasterio said neither called for it.
Coulombe struck Rice out swinging on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.
“Next time, I’m going to call it,” Monasterio said. “I promise.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
Rainbow flags are flying in the South End as the neighborhood prepares to celebrate Boston’s LGBTQ community at Saturday’s Pride for the People Parade.
Three hundred different organizations with about 12,000 people are expected to participate in what will be the city’s nearly 60th Pride parade.
”There are still things that we are fighting for today, and so we want to remember those that fought before us,” said Adrianna Boulin, of Boston Pride for the People.
The Pride for the People Parade and Festival is happening Saturday in Boston, among other events across New England.
This year’s theme is Pride as Protest – 1776, and organizers say Pride will always be a protest.
“The fact that we are here, the fact that in the midst of what is really an attack LGBTQ people’s rights by legislatures across the country, by our own federal government — we’re here to protest and say we’re not going anywhere,” said Gary Daffin of Boston Pride for the People.
The parade is nearly 2 miles. It starts in Copley Square and works its way through a number of streets in the South End and the Back Bay before ending on Charles Street between the Public Garden and the Common.
Not going to the parade? Watch NBC10 Boston’s coverage wherever you get your news, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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