The Red Sox (40-19) look to hold on against the Astros (37-23) for the series split in Houston (7:35 p.m., ESPN) tonight behind Rick Porcello (7-2, 3.65).

About tonight’s game: Porcello will square off against Charlie Morton (7-0, 2.26 ERA), who’s been pitching out of his mind since last year’s playoffs. Imagine Porcello’s insane start to this year never ended, and you’ve pretty much got Morton’s 2018. That’s not great for Boston! Also not great: He’ll face a lineup tonight that’s missing Rafael Devers, who gets a day off, and has Jackie Bradley Jr. batting sixth, higher than he has in... well, a long time. Brock Holt’s at second base and Eduardo Núñez is at third.

About last night’s game: The Sox finally broke through, albeit against the Houston bullpen, with mammoth homers from Christian Vazquez and Andrew Benintendi, and the Sox bullpen held on for a 5-4 win. Read Matt’s recap here.

Forecast: Surface-of-the-sun-style heat for the fourth consecutive day. Actually probably for longer, but not relevant to us!

Today’s reading: I don’t make you read on Sundays. God does. But you are welcome to listen to today’s Red Seat podcast, featuring Jake Devereaux and yours truly.

A good tweet from yesterday:

LINEUPS