BOSTON — Henry Owens’ third major league start — first at Fenway Park — offered another lesson.
It wasn’t glamorous, especially over the first three innings, but Owens managed to complete six frames Sunday in the Red Sox’s 10-8, 12-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Owens’ mixed effort represented a small victory in that the rookie kept his cool, improved as the game progressed and salvaged an opportunity to hone his craft against big league hitters.
“I honestly feel like giving up seven runs over the first three innings would have been easy for a young pitcher to collapse, but he composed himself,” Red Sox interim manager Torey Lovullo said after the game. “He wanted to go back out there for the sixth inning and executed a good game plan.
“For a young pitcher to do that — for a young pitcher to go back out there and complete that sixth inning as easily as he did — says a lot about Henry.”
The Mariners knocked around Owens in the early going. He surrendered three home runs — two to Franklin Gutierrez and one to Robinson Cano — over the first three innings. Seattle appeared to be sitting on Owens’ offspeed stuff and it looked like an early exit was inevitable.
Owens prevented the Mariners from inflicting any more damage in the fourth and fifth innings, though. And with his pitch count sitting at 88, Owens returned for a sixth inning. He struck out two more in a 1-2-3 inning to give him 10 strikeouts for the contest.
“You’ve got to give him some credit. He was getting to a certain point in the at-bat and he was smelling some blood and he finished it off,” Lovullo said of Owens’ interesting — for lack of a better word — performance. “Ten strikeouts over six innings is pretty impressive, no matter how you look at it.”
Owens, at 23 years, 26 days old, became the youngest Red Sox pitcher with 10 strikeouts in a game since Jon Lester racked up 10 K’s on June 21, 2006. He also became the youngest Boston pitcher since Roger Clemens on Aug. 21, 1984, to have 10 or more strikeouts and one or fewer walks.
“I think we’ve got to kind of break it up into a couple of segments,” Lovullo reasoned. “Yes, he was rattled early, a few long balls, composed himself, kept us in the game, gave us a chance to play a little bit of catch-up.
“And that’s really the theme for me (Sunday), is that we chipped away at a 7-0 lead and had a chance to win that ballgame.”
The Red Sox trailed 7-4 when Owens left the game. They eventually tied the score 8-8 with two runs in the ninth inning before the Mariners struck for two runs in the 12th.
Owens’ effort almost seems like a footnote given Boston’s impressive comeback, but the pitcher’s continued development is one of the most important storylines of the Red Sox’s stretch run. And while the Red Sox certainly are hoping for better overall results moving forward, his composure in the face of a potential disaster stood out, even if it’s a small consolation for the young lefty.
“It’s going to be a constant learning process,” Owens said. “I think even people who aren’t rookies are still trying to learn this game. There’s so much to learn, so I’m going to continue to take it day by day and (Monday) come out and get my work in and try and learn something watching the game.”
Owens’ third lesson is complete. It’s on to the next one.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
