The Red Sox (39-19) look to beat the Astros (37-22) tonight in Houston (7:15 p.m., FOX), which is a hard enough proposition any time but especially so when Justin Verlander (7-2, 1.11 ERA) is on the mound.

About tonight’s game: Verlander will be matched by David Price (5-4, 4.04 ERA), which makes it a battle of former Cy Young Award winners. Price has see-sawed but has been fine, whereas Verlander is off to the best start in his Hall of Fame career.

He’ll face a lineup without Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia, who are both on the disabled list. Sam Travis and Bobby Poyner are back on the roster, but not starting, obviously. Blake Swihart’s in right field, because sure. The rest is pretty much what you expect.

About last night’s game: Chris Sale and Gerrit Cole both got hit a little, Joe Kelly got hit a lot and homers from Mitch Moreland and J.D. Martinez weren’t enough as the Sox fell, again, 7-3. Read Matt’s recap here.

Forecast:

Today’s reading: “The out of position lineup,” by Phil Neuffer, is probably the best thing we can ever publish, so here it is again.

A good tweet from yesterday:

LINEUPS