Christian Vázquez Believes Tanner Houck Looked ‘Very Good’ As Closer

The Boston Red Sox might have finally found their closer more than one-third of the way through the season.

Since June 10, all four of Tanner Houck’s outings have been save opportunities. More importantly, he’s converted the save each time. Red Sox manager Alex Cora feels like he has found a traditional back-end of the bullpen, and his catcher was not shy to praise his new unofficial closer.

“He looks comfortable,” Christian Vázquez told NESN.com’s Jahmai Webster on Sunday, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think he looked very good right there. He’s got nasty stuff and I think he’s going to help a lot this season.”

Houck’s save in the finale against the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park was another notch in his belt on his journey to becoming the next Red Sox closer. The right-hander only needed to record one out to get the save, doing so by striking out Cardinals talented rookie Brendan Donovan after allowing a single to Tommy Edman on a ground ball that deflected off of Houck.

The Red Sox won the game 6-4 to secure their fifth series win in a row. The Red Sox begin a new, three-game set against the Detroit Tigers on Monday at Fenway Park. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.