The Boston Red Sox took on the Houston Astros in the series finale between the two teams on Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, and Alex Cora's squad earned a 4-1 victory.
Boston's arms were the story in this one, as Cooper Criswell, who has bounced around between the rotation, bullpen and Worcester, got the start. Unlike his last outing where he gave up six earned to the Baltimore Orioles, Criswell was nails in his 4 2/3 innings, giving up just one run (a solo home run by Alex Bregman in the first inning) on four hits and a walk while striking out four batters.
Zack Kelly (one hit in 1/3 of an inning), Josh Winchkowski (one hit in one inning), Greg Weisser (two hits and a walk in 2/3 of an inning), Brennan Bernardino (1/3 of an inning), Luis Garcia (one inning) and Chris Martin (one hit in one inning) followed with scoreless appearances.
The Red Sox's offense wasn't overly impressive, recording just seven total hits and striking out 10 times, but they did enough to secure the win. The four runs were driven in by Triston Casas (1-for-3) on an RBI single in the first, Ceddanne Rafaela (2-for-4) on two separate RBI doubles in the second and seventh and David Hamilton (1-for-4) on a solo home run in the top of the ninth.
Masataka Yoshida (2-for-4) was the only other member of the lineup to record multiple hits, as he recorded two singles.
This win improved Boston's record to 67-59 overall and 38-27 away from Fenway Park, and it also gave them the series win. They'll have the day off on Thursday before hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks for three games starting on Friday.
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