By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON – The kids are running the bases after Boston’s 6-1 victory and series sweep of the Houston Astros today. They might as well, as the base paths are clear and clean. Aside from Carlos Correa‘s home run in the 4th inning, the ‘Stros only had three base runners and not one reached third base against Boston’s starter Lucas Giolito.
Giolito (8-2) had his most successful and deepest outing of 2025, going eight innings and allowing only the three hits and one walk. He struck out four Houston batters as he threw a 103 pitches (67 strikes). Since June 10th, he’s won seven games and dropped only one (at Chicago Cubs, July 18). Giolito’s eight innings were the deepest he’s gone in a game since August 9th of the 2021 season.
And, get this?
The Red Sox gave him a full blast-off of run support, all coming in a six run fourth inning when Houston starter and club ace Framber Valdez simply imploded. The six-run rally started with a Roman Anthony double to left center field, then Valdez walked Romy Gonzalez. From there, Valdez committed a balk, threw a wild pitch, threw a pitch that caused Houston catcher Yanier Diaz to be charged with a passed ball and allowed Boston’s Trevor Story, Ceddanne Rafaela and Abraham Toro to hit consecutive singles before Valdez made an error on a soft grounder up the middle.
The fourth inning saw all the scoring in the game, starting as a 1-0 lead for the Astros but finishing with a 6-1 lead for the Sox.
Valdez had his own 10-game win streak broken, dating back to May 7. During that 10-game span, Valdez posted a 1.84 ERA, struck out 104 batters and kept his opponents to a .202 batting average.
Over in the home dugout, Boston is now 11 games over the .500 mark (62-51), as they’ve won seven of their last eight games, including five in a row (two vs. Minnesota; three vs. Houston). Today, August 3, 2025 marks the first time Boston is 11 games over .500 since June 26, 2022.
The reason? Boston pitchers have allowed only six earned runs over the last four games for a 1.46 ERA.
Houston has lost the three straight games vs Boston, but have dropped eight of their last 10 games.