Free fall continues for Red Sox

As shitty as this team was against the Angels, they have the talent to pull out a few wins, and I’m not convinced the Yankees are ready to pull away with the division quite yet.

The game was tied 4-all when Altuve connected off Craig Breslow (0-1) and homered into the seats in left field, a ball that barely made it over the wall. The safe call stood up to a lengthy replay review.

In the sixth, Hank Conger led-off with a double off of the Crawford Boxes in left field and Carter followed up with an opposite-field home run, his 16th of the year, into the Astros bullpen to open the lead to 7-3 in favor of Houston.

“We … scored all of our runs on the home run, which we can do that from time to time”, manager A.J. Gonzalez would soon get that run back for the rookie pitcher.

“That was awesome”, Gonzalez said. “Especially right now because we start good on the second half. And, well, he did it”.

The Red Sox countered with three runs in the third inning to go ahead 3-1. With two outs in the frame, the suddenly hot Napoli ripped a double over the head of Houston’s left fielder to tie the ballgame at four.

The Houston Astros are doing what they know how to do best – hitting home runs to support strong starting pitching.

Despite a breakout performance Thursday from the much-maligned first baseman, the Red Sox could not salvage the final game of their road trip from hell, losing to the Houston Astros 5-4 at Minute Maid Park. Mookie Betts doubled to right field to score them both and give Boston a 2-1 lead. Tucker finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs in the first multi-homer game of his career.McHugh (11-5) faced 13 batters in the first four innings and then had to weave in and out of trouble to complete seven innings. After Johnson walked Altuve, he exited, having thrown 87 pitches. Astros rookie RHPs Lance McCullers and Vince Velasquez might have their turns in the rotation skipped in the coming weeks with the club facing four off days through the end of August.

After walking the leadoff hitter Jose Altuve, Altuve would score the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Correa. It was the sixth consecutive Houston run to come via homer and the fifth longball Ogando has allowed in his last five relief appearances.

Astros: INF Jed Lowrie, who hasn’t played since April 27 because of a torn ligament in his thumb, will begin a rehabilitation assignment at Double-A Corpus Christi on Wednesday.

On June 15th, the Red Sox lost their seventh straight game, dropping them to eleven games below.500. Farrell announced Thursday that Steven Wright will be recalled from Triple-A to start on Saturday and Eduardo Rodriguez will be pushed back to Sunday.

Meanwhile Bayside High graduate Chris Heston took the mound for the San Francisco Giants in a late game against the San Diego Padres.