Red Sox Notes: Tanner Houck Gave Boston Opportunity To Win

Tanner Houck continued his brilliance on the mound for the Red Sox, but unfortunately for Boston, Twins pitcher Chris Paddack outdueled the right-hander in the 5-2 loss at Target Field in Minnesota on Friday.

Houck threw 63.6% of his pitches for strikes (63-of-99 pitches) and struck out five batters in the loss.

“Excellent. He was excellent,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We needed him to go deep into the game coming from yesterday’s game, and tomorrow knowing where we’re at with the bullpen game. That’s what the good ones do. When you need innings, he goes out there, it’s not like he just gave us innings he gave us a chance to win.”

The 27-year-old gave up four runs on six hits in his third loss, and he didn’t consider it one of his better outings.

“I wouldn’t say it was my best in terms of stuff-wise,” Houck told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I felt like it was coming and going in terms of the sharpness of the pitches.”

The Red Sox had an opportunity to score first when Jarren Duran reached on a Carlos Correa fielding error, and Rafael Devers hit a double to center.

“We missed a big opportunity there. Second and third with no outs, and we didn’t score,” Cora said. “After that, we didn’t put too much together until the eighth. It’s one of those we have to keep battling and keep working and hopefully tomorrow we have a better one.”

In four road starts, Houck is 2-2 with a 2.25 ERA in 24 innings with 26 strikeouts and seven walks.

Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Twins game:

— Naoyuki Uwasawa appeared in his second straight game. He pitched the seventh and eighth innings allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out two of the 10 batters he faced.

“He pitched two innings yesterday, so what he did today, that’s big,” Cora said. “He understood that we needed bullets there to save the bullpen, to save the staff for tomorrow. That’s what guys do, and he has a good fastball, a good split.”

Uwasawa did have a pitch clock violation that drove in a run for Minnesota, but Cora said his effort has been good.

— Rafael Devers extended his hitting streak to nine games. He finished the night 2-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, two RBI, a walk and a strikeout. The Red Sox third baseman is slashing .300/.429/.500 on the season.

— Boston dropped to 5-6 in series openers, 11-6 on the road, 2-9 when opponents score first, 2-10 when scoring less than four runs and 18-15 overall.

— The Red Sox continue their three-game set with the Twins on Saturday afternoon. First pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET, and you can catch all the action following an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.