At first glance, Tanner Houck didn't have all that of a special of a night on the mound for the Red Sox in their 7-6 win over the Blue Jays.
His final line read six runs allowed on six hits, which all came during the same inning, while yielding a 5.94 earned-runs average and a no-decision.
However, Red Sox manager Alex Cora felt Houck's ability to respond after the blow-up inning put the team in a good position to secure the win.
"The game changed when Tanner went out and gave us another inning," Cora said to reporters. "That was huge, we needed that.
"He's throwing strikes, he's not getting caught up in the swings and misses and he had good stuff too. He was throwing 96-97, so we're very proud of him."
Houck returned to pitch in the sixth and retired the three batters in order on a groundout, strikeout and flyout. That allowed the Sox to go to their bullpen an inning later, while also building up Houck's pitch count. Houck finished the outing at 96 with 57 strikes.
"I would say I threw five good innings and had one bad one where I got away from myself," Houck said to reporters. "I stopped going right after hitters. I got cute, is the way I said it, but it was a good learning lesson and get ready for the next one."
Toronto had scored all six of their runs in the fifth inning and took a sizeable 6-3 lead midway through the game. Boston's offense responded right away, cutting the Blue Jays advantage to 6-5 before the sixth began, however, Houck's ability to limit the damage to one inning was critical.
"[Cora] pulled me aside and said 'throw your best stuff with full conviction every single time,'" Houck said on his mindset going into the sixth. "That's why I said it's a learning moment. Glad I was able to go back out there, throw another zero and give us a chance to win the ballgame."
"It happens, he's still learning," Cora said. "But the fact that he went out and made adjustments and gave us a chance to win the game, that's what counts today. Obviously, all the runs with two outs is not what we wanted but we talked a little bit and I think he grew up a lot today, understanding that we're very short in the bullpen and that we didn't need five, we needed six innings."
Houck has stepped up in that regard all season long in terms of giving the team innings, as the right-hander has tossed more than five innings in four of his five starts heading into Tuesdays matchup.
In fact, his career high of seven innings pitched occured earlier this season against the Twins. As a team, Red Sox starters have thrown 146.2 innings, which is 11th in the American League.
Despite not getting rewarded on the stat sheet for his gutsy performance, Houck can still take the positives from an important start early in the season.
"It's one of those things where you go out there and compete and leave it all out on the field and put the team in the best position to win," Houck said."
