Red Sox Notes: Tanner Houck Posts Milestone Start In Boston Win

In his 30th start of the season, Tanner Houck had an outstanding night on the mound for the Red Sox, earning his ninth win of the season as Boston defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 at Rogers Centre on Monday night.

Houck tossed five scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit and one walk to the 17 Toronto batters he faced. The 25-year-old threw 63.1% of his pitches for strikes (36-of-57), but he did not register a single strikeout. Houck instead induced contact, leading to 10 ground outs and five flyouts.

“Being a sinkerballer, it’s kind of always the game plan,” Houck told reporters in Toronto following the Red Sox win. “Go in there, attack the zone, attack the bottom of the zone. That’s where my stuff plays best. Trust the defense behind me. … I felt like I did that really well. But, (the Blue Jays), being an aggressive team, just got a lot of early ground ball outs. So, it was definitely good to see.”

Before the All-Star break, Houck went 8-6 in 19 starts, but he struggled in the second half of the season, with a 1-4 record in 11 starts. Getting to 30 starts after just 21 last season is a milestone in itself for Houck.

“I think as a starter, that’s kind of what you strive for, 30-plus starts, 200-plus innings are kin of those milestones that I think everyone shoots for,” Houck said. “To get the 30th under my belt, I don’t think I’ve ever done it, even in the minor leagues, so huge step forward. … I feel like I’ve grown a lot as an individual on and off the baseball field this year.”

Houck added: “You don’t really want to end on a bad note. The past few years, I’ve had some unfortunate circumstances with the back, getting hit in the face; to finally see this one all the way through, it’s a great feeling. It’s a great team, and I love showing up and being with them every day. It’s a privilege to go out there every five days and compete with them.”

Here are more notes from Monday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game:

— The Red Sox walked a season-high 10 times and struck out just four times in the win. Toronto starter Chris Bassitt had a tough outing on the mound, walking seven batters and allowing three runs on four Red Sox hits.

“Bassitt was very tough in the last (game he pitched against us),” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters. “He struck out; I don’t know how many, we had bases loaded, no outs, and we didn’t score, and it was a tough one. We needed to be relentless in the strikes, and we were. The guys did an amazing job, working counts, taking the walks.

“… We ran the bases okay. Put some pressure on them. We hustled out of the box, and that’s the reason we won the game.”

— Jarren Duran hit two extra-base hits in the game. He smacked his 47th double and 14th triple of the season and finished 2-for-5 from the dish with a strikeout. He became just the fourth Red Sox batter to hit at least 14 triples in a season. Jim Rice hit 15 in 1978 and 1977, Ted Williams had 14 in 1940 and Lou Finney pelted 15 in 1940, per the club’s senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long.

— Boston’s starters lead Major League Baseball with a 2.43 ERA in their last 27 games, and the Red Sox’s starting rotation ranks sixth overall in MLB with a 3.76 ERA, after ranking 22nd in 2023 with a 4.68 ERA, according to Long.

— The Red Sox and Blue Jays will take the field again at Rogers Centre on Tuesday. Brayan Bello and Bowden Francis are slated to oppose one another on the mound. First pitch from Toronto is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.