Tanner Houck, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, entered the Midsummer Classic as the team’s unofficial ace. However, since then, the first-time All-Star has battled to regain his dominant form, and this loss against the Texas Rangers on Saturday night was a result of his cold streak.
After more than five innings on the bump, Houck left the game after giving up six earned runs on eight hits and two walks. He also had seven strikeouts.
Houck informed reporters, “The line’s the line and you can’t take it back,” as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s not what you expected to see, but it’s a step in the right direction anyway. In the end, I believe that if I had 35 starts and consistently threw strikes—of which I think I threw 72% overall, 68% on first pitches—that would be quality every single time. Just need to polish even more and avoid those two errors (against Leody Taveras and Jonah Heim).”
Holding the Rangers scoreless for the first three innings pitched, Houck got off to a more consistent start. But Texas started to figure Houck out in the fourth inning with two outs when Heim and Taveras, the No. 8 and No. 9 batters, each blasted back-to-back home runs, turning a 3-0 Red Sox lead into a 4-3 Rangers lead.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, “Hanging (splitter), back-door breaking ball in the zone and they put two good swings on it,” as seen on NESN’s postgame footage. “After that, they continued to put pressure on us, play the ball, and score additional goals. In my opinion, he threw the ball really well overall. The pitches were excellent.
He had, obviously, a few difficult ones. The slider was excellent. Tanner and Danny (Jansen) got along great together. You say there are two pitches? And it occurred quite quickly in opposition to the lowest order.”
Despite the fact that Houck’s awful turn only lasted two at-bats, the 28-year-old’s poor performance fits a recent pattern.
In his three starts since the All-Star break, Houck has a 6.88 ERA in 17 innings pitched and is 0-2 overall. Batting is done by opposing batters.Opposing batters batted 324 in the second half of 2024 against the right-hander, a significant difference from the first half.215 prior to the All-Star Game versus Houck. Granted, Saturday night might have been the much-needed comeback game for Boston if Houck had stopped the Rangers from rallying for four runs in the fourth inning. However, a quick change in momentum is required as the Red Sox trail the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees by 6 1/2 games in the American League standings.