Red Sox Notes: Tanner Houck’s ‘Excellent’ Outing Keeps Boston On Track

The Boston Red Sox opened up a three-game series with the Oakland Athletics fresh off four consecutive strong outings from the staff’s starting pitchers, and Tanner Houck continued that streak Monday night.

After a misleading 2-2 start to the campaign, Boston’s starting pitching made itself apparent as the team’s standout strong suit. Knowing what that’ll mean for the team’s overall race to dig itself out of back-to-back last-place divisional finishes, Houck carried the baton to ensure the Red Sox remained among the best starting rotations to begin 2024.

And that’s exactly what the 27-year-old did on the West Coast by pitching six scoreless innings.

“I thought he was excellent. Mixed up his pitches, repeated his delivery, and was the aggressor the whole night,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, per NESN’s postgame coverage. “He was ahead of the count and just (pitched) to weak contact and got some swings and misses.”

Houck surrendered only three hits while striking out 10 and did not walk a single batter.

“That’s hard to do. That’s hard to do,” Cora said.

Houck matched a career-high in strikeouts with Oakland posing no scoring threat while the right-hander stood on the mound.

“I know what I gotta do to be a starter for a long time. And I know what I gotta do to pitch deeper into games and its throw a lot of strikes, and when you get to the 0-2 count, expand,” Houck said, per NESN postgame coverage. “Until that point, you gotta go out there and pound the zone.”

The premier challenge for Houck last season, aside from staying healthy, was maintaining that fierce dominance against opposing lineups through the third trip through the order. Yet, with Oakland performing like a defeated team in the earlier innings, Houck easily capitalized to keep the Athletics asleep before letting the bullpen finish them off.

Boston’s offense supplied plenty of run support, scoring eight times by the third inning, which proved to be way more than enough for Houck. He threw 83 pitches in the outing with 63 falling within the strikezone.

“Whether it’s one run or 10 runs, it’s the same game,” Houck explained. “You know what you gotta do and you can’t get behind guys. So to go out there and to throw a lot of strikes is the name of the game and (I’m) harder on myself than anyone else will be. I need to throw a few more first-pitch strikes but all-in-all, a really good performance.”

The Red Sox snagged their 17th victory over the Athletics in their last 26 matchups, dating back to the 2019 season.

Here are more notes from Monday night’s Red Sox-Athletics game:

— Jarren Durran became the only player in Red Sox history to steal five bases in the team’s first five games, stealing three on Monday night in Oakland while also providing the offense with three singles.

“We have so many weapons on this team and so many guys that can steal bases,” Duran said, per NESN. “I got the big guys behind me so if they’re afraid I’m gonna steal, hopefully they give Raffy (Devers) a fastball or something and he’ll be able to hit one out so I don’t have to run so hard all the time.”

— The Red Sox pitching staff entered Oakland with a 2.04 ERA, the second-best in MLB and slightly behind the New York Yankees (2.00 ERA). That improved to a leading 1.42 ERA after Houck and Chase Anderson combined to throw nine shutout innings against the Athletics.

— The Athletics committed five errors by the third inning, increasing their MLB lead in defensive miscues to 13. Oakland is the only team in baseball to reach double digits in errors through five games played.

— Boston will continue its series in Oakland on Tuesday night, playing the second of three against the Athletics. First pitch from the Oakland Coliseum is set for 9:40 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN+.