The first half of Tanner Houck’s 2024 season was just about perfect. On Saturday, the second half got off to a brutal start.
Pitching on his 28th birthday after logging a 2.18 ERA in his first 16 starts of the season, Houck was tagged for eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits and couldn’t get out of the fifth inning as the Red Sox were routed for the second straight day by the Padres, this time by a 11-1 score. San Diego made it a laugher with a six-run fifth inning and homered three times in all. The Padres have outscored the Red Sox, 20-3, in the first two games of a three-game series; Boston has lost three in a row and is now 43-39.
Tanner Houck has had better birthdays
Houck, who appears be a lock for next month’s All-Star Game in Texas, was hit harder than he had been all season, including by Manny Machado, who took him deep twice. Houck started his outing with a 1-2-3 first but ran into a hit parade in the second when three straight San Diego hitters notched singles and Donovan Solano scored the game’s first run on a Jarren Duran error in center. After Luis Arraez led off the third with a single, Machado did his first damage of the day by taking Houck over the Monster to make it 3-0. Jackson Merrill’s solo homer to lead off the fifth made it 4-0. By the time Machado stepped to the plate again in the fifth, it was 5-0 after a Jake Cronenworth RBI knock.
Machado put things out of reach by blasting a three-run shot to center and securing the 40th multi-homer game of his career. Houck faced one more batter and departed after just 4 ⅔ innings as his ERA rose by a half-run to 2.67.
Conversely, the Sox couldn’t get anything going against Padres starter (and Boston College alum) Michael King, who allowed five hits and struck out six batters in six strong innings. King got even more of a cushion in the fifth after Houck departed and lefty Bailey Horn, making his major league debut, served up a two-run homer to Brett Sullivan that capped off San Diego’s six-run fifth.
One of the only bright spots of the day for the Red Sox came in the sixth when Duran led off with his eighth homer of 2024. Horn, who was called up Friday, allowed two runs and four hits in 2 ⅓ innings. San Diego scored its 11th run in the eighth when Merrill tagged Zack Kelly. with an RBI double.
The Red Sox fell to 16-14 against National League teams this season and 18-11 in day games.
Smith pitches in
Things got so bad that the Red Sox had to turn to a position player to pitch late in the game. Dom Smith made his first career appearance on the mound, and tossing mostly blooping breaking balls in the 30-50 mph range, tossed a scoreless ninth while allowing one hit.
Winckowski gets finale Sunday
The Red Sox will try to avoid a sweep Sunday afternoon behind righty Josh Winckowski (1-1, 3.26 ERA), who is making his fourth big league start of the season (and first since May 2). The Padres will send knuckleballer Matt Waldron (5-6, 3.43 ERA) to the mound. First pitch is at 1:35 p.m. ET.
