In his 30th start of the season, Tanner Houck had a standout night on the mound for the Red Sox, picking up his ninth win of the season as Boston defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 at Rogers Centre on Monday night.
Houck threw five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk from the 17 Toronto batters he faced. The 25-year-old threw 63.1% of his pitches as strikes (36 of 57), but did not record a single strikeout. Instead, Houck provoked physical contact, resulting in 10 ground outs and five flyouts.
“As a sinkerballer, that’s kind of always the game plan,” Houck told reporters in Toronto after the Red Sox win. “Go in there, attack the zone, attack the bottom of the zone. That’s where my stuff works best. Trust the defense behind me. … I felt like I did that really well. But (the Blue Jays) are an aggressive team and just got a lot of early groundball outs. So it was definitely good to see.”
Before the All-Star break, Houck had an 8-6 record in 19 starts, but he struggled in the second half of the season, going 1-4 in 11 starts. Reaching 30 starts after only 21 starts last season is a milestone in itself for Houck.
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“I think as a starter, that’s what you strive for. 30-plus starts and 200-plus innings are milestones that everyone wants to reach,” Houck said. “Reaching 30 is something I’ve never done, even in the minor leagues. That’s a huge step forward. … I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a person this year, on and off the baseball field.”
Houck added: “You don’t necessarily want to end on a bad note. I’ve had some unfortunate back issues and getting hit in the face the last few years. To finally make it to the end is a great feeling. It’s a great team and I love playing with them every day. It’s a privilege to go out there and compete with them every five days.”
Here are more notes from Monday’s Red Sox game against the Blue Jays:
— The Red Sox managed a season-high 10 walks and struck out just four times. Toronto starter Chris Bassitt had a rough outing on the mound, walking seven batters and allowing three runs on four Red Sox hits.
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“Bassit was very tough in the last (game he pitched against us),” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters. “He made strikeouts, I don’t know how many, we had all the bases loaded, no outs, and we didn’t score, and it was a tough game. We had to be relentless on the strikes, and that’s what we did. The guys did a great job, making the counts, making the walks.”
“…We ran the bases pretty well. We put pressure on them. We forced ourselves out of the box, and that’s why we won the game.”
— Jarren Duran hit two extra-base hits in the game. He hit his 47th double and 14th triple of the season and finished with 2 of 5 strikeouts. He became only the fourth Red Sox batter to hit at least 14 triples in a season. Jim Rice hit 15 in 1978 and 1977, Ted Williams hit 14 in 1940 and Lou Finney hit 15 in 1940, according to JP Long, the club’s senior manager of media relations and baseball information.
– Boston’s starters lead Major League Baseball with a 2.43 ERA in their last 27 games, and the Red Sox starting lineup ranks sixth overall in MLB with a 3.76 ERA, according to Long, after ranking 22nd in 2023 with a 4.68 ERA.
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— The Red Sox and Blue Jays will face off again Tuesday at Rogers Centre. Brayan Bello and Bowden Francis will face off on the mound. First pitch from Toronto is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pre-game coverage, on NESN.
