The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros meet up for Game 2 of their American League Division Series on Friday afternoon. Game 1 saw Houston win in a commanding way, with the final score 8-2. Now the Red Sox will see if they can tie up the series before it heads back to Boston. Here's the latest Red Sox vs. Astros game preview including starting pitchers, matchup odds, game time, TV channel, and live streaming online viewer options.
Game 2 preview
The Houston Astros are off to a good start in this year's MLB Playoffs with an 8-2 win in Game 1 over Boston. Their new ace Justin Verlander was on the mound to pitch six innings and held Boston to those two runs. Meanwhile, his team piled on six runs during that time. Among the stars for the Astros were Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve who each had home runs. Altuve had a 3-for-4 outing as he smacked out three home runs in the game and three RBIs to lead the way. Josh Reddick also finished 2-for-3 in the game with two runs scored.
Meanwhile, Chris Sale had a rough outing for the Boston Red Sox in the first game of the series.
The Boston ace pitched five innings but gave up nine hits and seven runs including three home runs. Boston's runs came courtesy of Rafael Devers and Sandy Leon. Leon's single to right field scored Dustin Pedroia in the second while Devers had a sac fly to score Mookie Betts in the fourth. Beyond that, the Red Sox had trouble coming up with much in this first game of the series but have a chance to bounce back Friday.
Today's game will feature Dallas Keuchel on the mound for the Houston Astros and Drew Pomeranz for the Boston Red Sox. Keuchel is a former Cy Young Award winner in 2015 who has a 2.90 ERA, 125 strikeouts and a 14-5 record for the past MLB season. Pomeranz was 17-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 174 strikeouts.
Oddsmakers have pegged Houston as the favorites to win again today with their money line price at -117. The Red Sox are +107 underdogs with the over/underruns total for the game at 10.5 runs.
How to watch it live
Game 2 of the ALDS featuring the Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros has a 2:05 p.m. Eastern Time start on Friday. Live television coverage of this game is on the Fox Sports 1 channel around the United States. Cable and satellite with Fox Sports 1 can use the Fox Sports Go website or mobile apps to watch this game live streaming online.
A free option to see the Red Sox vs. Astros live streaming is to sign up for a one-week free trial of SlingTV. The channel streaming service offers Fox Sports 1 as part of its channel package called Sling Blue. More details are available at the Sling.com website for how to sign up and watch today's MLB Playoffs along with other content for the next week.