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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. β For much of the season, Tanner Houck has been accustomed to pitching when and where the Red Sox ask.
Sometimes that was in Worcester, sometimes in Boston.
Sometimes, it was as a starter and sometimes it was out of the bullpen.
Being able to adapt on the fly has been a key. Without a defined role -- or sometimes, even a fixed address -- Houck knew he had to always be prepared.
But despite it all, there's a good chance Houck never expected to find himself on the mound in the second inning of Game 2 of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field Friday night.
After all, Chris Sale was starting with full rest, and this is what the Red Sox were fantasizing about for much of the season as they waited patiently for Sale to return from Tommy John surgery. Surely, Sale would pitch into the middle-to-late innings and there would be no need for anyone in the second inning.
Until the first inning happened, that is. Sale was shelled for five runs on four hits -- including a grand slam by Jordan Luplow. That forced the Red Sox to change plans in a hurry. Far earlier than expected, Houck hurriedly prepared to come into the game.
Maybe because of all the changes he weathered during the season, Houck wasn't the least bit unsettled by the assignment.
"It's about showing up every day and not taking a day off,'' said Houck. It's easy, I guess, as a reliever to go out there (to the bullpen at the start of the game) and just say, 'All right, Chris has hit.' He has it for six innings and kind of mentally shut it off. But being locked in to every pitch, every AB that's going on, and just supporting your teammates whether they're hitting, playing the field, or pitching. It's just a matter of continuing to stay locked into the game and not kind of doze off.''
Doze off? Houck instead electrified the Red Sox. This wasn't a long reliever taking one for the team by eating up innings that unexpectedly landed in his lap. This wasn't just saving the rest of the bullpen while absorbing more pounding.
No, this was about dominating a Rays lineup that had scored 10 runs in the first 10 innings of the series, and helping to engineer a mammoth comeback. Houck didn't log innings; he lulled the Rays into submission with five innings in which he allowed just one on two hits.
While Houck was quieting things down on the mound, the Sox were hacking away at the Tampa Bay pitching staff until they made up the five runs that Sale had given up -- and then some -- as the Sox walloped the Rays, 14-6, to even their Division Series at a game each.
"Absolutely huge,'' marveled Alex Verdugo of Houck. "Going down 5-2 (in the first) is tough, but you look at the scoreboard and I think it was like four or five zeros right after that. and I mean, that's big.''
Houck retired the first 11 hitters he faced Friday night, into the fifth inning before Wander Franco finally reached on a base hit up the middle. Dating back to last Saturday when Houck started and gave the Sox five perfect innings, then followed with a scoreless inning Tuesday in the wild card game, that meant that over three games, Houck has retired 29 hitters in succession -- the equivalent of a perfect game, plus two more outs.
"He's been amazing,'' gushed Alex Cora. "The fastball, the slider, the spliter -- he doesn't panic. We've been using him a lot and we have to be careful with that but today was the perfect day for him to go out there and help to win a ballgame. He just stays in the moment. He doesn't get ahead of himself or mope around when he gets hit. He just wants to keep going and get people out and what he's done this week has been amazing. And now, obviously, he is going to be down for a few days, but today was huge for us. It was huge.''
Houck claimed he was unaware of the number of hitters he had retired in a row dating back to Saturday, and that's in keeping with his personality.
"I was more focused on getting outs and putting the team in the best place to win,'' he said.
He meant Game 2, of course, because that, too, is Houck's mentality -- focusing on the task at hand, on the present and not the future.
But it may well be, that in so doing, he may have also positioned the Red Sox to win the series, too.