Jake Bennett was set to make his major league debut Friday night when the Red Sox opened a three-game series against the Astros in Boston. The Red Sox announced Bennett as their starter at 1:53 p.m., giving the 24-year-old left-hander his first big league assignment against a Houston club that came in tied for last in the AL West.
Boston entered at 12-19 after dropping the final two games of its series in Toronto, while Houston was 12-20 after splitting a doubleheader with the Orioles in Baltimore. The matchup paired two teams trying to steady themselves early in the season, with the Red Sox still waiting to see how Bennett’s arm holds up at the highest level and the Astros leaning on right-hander Mike Burrows, who was 1-3 with a 6.25 ERA.
Bennett’s rise has been fast once he got back on the mound. The Red Sox acquired him from Washington last December for pitching prospect Luis Perales, and he was drafted by the Nationals in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft. He missed the 2024 season after Tommy John surgery, then worked his way to Triple-A Worcester, where he went 2-1 with a 0.86 ERA in five starts. In 21 innings, he struck out 16 and walked three.
Boston had not named a starter before Bennett was announced, and that came after he was scratched from his Worcester start on Tuesday. The timing mattered because the Red Sox had just put Garrett Crochet on the 15-day injured list earlier this week, thinning a rotation already under pressure. Chad Tracy, who has watched Bennett closely, called him a big-time strike thrower and said the velocity on his fastball has ticked up. Tracy also said Bennett was coming off an arm injury when he was with Washington, tends to get in on hitters because the fastball plays up, stays in the zone a lot, holds runners well and gets plenty of weak contact.
The Astros brought their own dangerous bat to the series in Yordan Alvarez, who was hitting.391 with nine home runs and 25 RBIs in 26 regular-season games against Boston. Alvarez saw his 13-game hitting streak end in Thursday’s opener against Baltimore, then homered in Houston’s 11-5 win in the nightcap. He entered Friday tied for the AL lead with 12 home runs, first in the league with 27 RBIs and first with a.356 batting average.
For Boston, the debut was about more than one start. Bennett was acquired with the idea that his stuff could matter quickly, and Friday gave the club its first look at whether he can help stabilize a pitching staff already missing Crochet. For Houston, the trip to Fenway opened with a chance to keep Alvarez rolling and put a little distance between itself and the bottom of the division.