Despite his impressive start against the Houston Astros on Friday night, the Red Sox made the difficult decision to option Cooper Criswell back to Triple-A Worcester on Saturday morning in order to add trade deadline addition Dustin May to the active roster.

Christian Walker’s solo homer was the only Astros run off Criswell, who held the visiting team to seven hits and two walks over seven innings in Friday night’s extra-innings walk-off victory.

“I was talking to (Jason Varitek) during the game,” manager Alex Cora said Saturday afternoon. “In (Criswell’s) situation, I bet that was in the back of his mind, right? But he did an outstanding job, and that’s why we feel comfortable with the roster that we have. We have him, we got (Kyle) Harrison, we got (Richard) Fitts. Something happens, we know we can go there, and they’re gonna do the job.”

The Red Sox were in a similar position Friday, when they optioned bullpen stalwart Brennan Bernardino to Triple-A in order to open a spot for their other trade deadline acquisition, Steven Matz. Bernardino currently owns a career-best 3.09 ERA over 47 appearances, and hasn’t yielded a run over his last 11 games.

“That one, that was a tough one yesterday,” Cora admitted. “But we added two guys that we believe they’re going to help us, and as a group, we’re better than three days ago. Having those guys in Triple-A, knowing that, like I said before, somebody gets hurt, they’re going to come here and do their job.”

Red Sox lineup

Romy Gonzalez 2B

Alex Bregman 3B

Roman Anthony RF

Rob Refsnyder DH

Trevor Story SS

Carlos Narváez C

Jarren Duran LF

Ceddanne Rafaela CF

Abraham Toro 1B

Houston Astros lineup

Jose Altuve 2B

Jesús Sánchez LF

Carlos Correa SS

Christian Walker 1B

Yainer Diaz DH

Victor Caratini C

Cam Smith RF

Taylor Trammell CF

Ramón Urías 3B

Probable pitchers

LHP Colton Gordon vs. RHP Walker Buehler

How to watch Astros vs. Red Sox

When: 4:10 p.m.

Where: Fenway Park, Boston

Watch: Red Sox – NESN, Astros – Space City Home Network

Listen: Red Sox – WEEI 93.7 FM, WCCM 1490 AM (Spanish), WESX 1230 AM (Spanish); Astros – KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3 FM