Red Sox vs. Astros lineups: Are we the captains now?

The Red Sox look to avenge their three losses to the Astros last week when they host the Texas team tonight at Fenway Park (7:10 p.m., NESN) behind Martín Pérez.

The Sox are on a roll right now, which makes facing the team that beat them three times in a row last week considerably less daunting than it would have felt otherwise because a) they beat that team to start their five-game winning streak and b) time makes fools of us all, and Aceves knows what we’ll be talking about at this point next week.

Framber Valdez, who Lou Merloni thinks is a cheater, starts for the Astros. First of all, cheating is great, and the Red Sox should try it. Just ask the Astros: No consequences! It’s free real estate. Second of all, the Sox should beat him to make up for this egregious violation of the rules. No one should cheat, especially the Red Sox.

It feels nice to cover all the bases.

Pérez has been better for the Sox than even the conceptualizers of the #PérezDay shirts have to have hoped, so that’s good, and hopefully it continues tonight. The good news: J.D. Martinez is back! The wrist is better. The bad news: Alex Verdugo gets the night off. The strange news: Christian Vázquez gets a second straight night off, with Kevin Plawecki manning the catcher spot. HMMMMMMM. Speculate if you must. (You must.)

As a side note, it’s amusing how much earlier the lineups come in when the Sox are winning. Happy Alex Cora means earlier lineups means happier Bryan Joiner. Befitting their reputation, the Astros also submitted early. Peace in our time, friends. Michael Brantley makes his first start of the two-series set (I’m fairly sure), so watch out for him. He’s good. Let’s keep winning! Here the full lineups: