BOSTON — Henry Owens stood even taller than his 6-foot-6 frame Friday at Fenway Park.
On a night when the opponent rolled out its best pitcher, who happens to be a legitimate ace on the cusp of free agency, Owens showed the Boston Red Sox they have some decent in-house options for next season, too. The 23-year-old outpitched Johnny Cueto in a 7-2 win over the Kansas City Royals.
“Quality outing for Henry,” acting Red Sox manager Torey Lovullo said after the victory. “What’s not to say about what he did? Eight innings, one earned run, got into a great rhythm.
“Him and (catcher) Blake (Swihart) were solid together. A two-pitch, at times a three-pitch, mix. It just seemed to really all click for him. He got into a great flow and great rhythm.”
Owens’ performance against the Royals was his best in four major league starts. It also happened to be his first quality start. He issued a leadoff walk to begin the game and then didn’t surrender another one the rest of the way. He allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits in eight excellent frames.
“We wanted him to touch the eighth inning,” Lovullo said of Owens, whose pitch count sat at 93 after seven innings. “Those were some the conversations we were having in the dugout. But he was so efficient that he worked through the eighth inning. That was a special night for him.”
The only earned run Owens allowed came on a leadoff home run by Alcides Escobar in the sixth inning. Owens tossed an 89 mph meatball that Escobar crushed into the center field bleachers.
But much like the leadoff walk to begin the game, the sixth-inning mistake didn’t rattle the young left-hander. If anything, he fed off it. Owens retired the final nine batters he faced en route to earning his second career big league win.
“A lot to be said for a guy that makes a mistake on a fastball up out over the plate and gets back up on the mound and starts driving pitches in the zone,” Lovullo said. “He’s got great mound presence, we can all see that. He’s unfazable, he makes quality pitches when he needs to, he feels like he’s in any count at any time and it’s very rare for a young pitcher to be able to do that.”
Friday’s start already posed a unique set of challenges for Owens. He faced the best pitcher on the American League’s best team just one start after allowing seven runs on 10 hits — including three homers — in a laborious outing against the Seattle Mariners. And yet he rose to the occasion in the face of it all.
“Collectively, minor leagues and big leagues, I felt like I was pretty comfortable early on and just took it inning by inning and ended up throwing eight,” Owens said.
Cueto entered Friday as the proven ace. But Owens was the one who looked the part.
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
