Alex Cora on Tanner Houck performance versus the Braves: ‘I saw a lot of swings and misses’
Red Sox starter Tanner Houck saw better command of his pitches and threw first pitch strikes in his second start of the spring.
Houck was impressive over the first two innings against the Braves. The righty opened the game with back-to-back strikeouts. He saw Braves All-Star third baseman Austin Riley rip a double up the third base line to follow but quickly took care of catcher Sean Murphy with one pitch to retire the side.
Houck threw 11 pitches in the first inning, he looked confident and in control on the mound.
“Strike one is big,” he said to the Boston Globe following the game. “Statistics show that strike one is absolutely huge for the pitcher and the hitter.”
The Illinois native only fell behind three batters over the three innings he pitched. He picked up his third strikeout of the game getting Braves outfielder Sam Hilliard to chase the slider down and away.
The third inning was a different story for Houck, he gave up a leadoff walk to Marcel Ozuna. That proved to be costly as old friend Kevin Pillar crushed a two-run homer deep over the left field fence.
Houck would walk a second batter in the inning but settled down after the Pillar blast.
“He threw strikes, made some adjustments on the mound and had good stuff,” manager Alex Cora said. “[Gave up a] homer, but that’s going to happen when you’re aggressive in the zone; we’ll take that. As far as stuff, I saw a lot of swings and misses, and he used a split-change a few times today and kept them off-balance, so that was a good one.”
Overall, Houck pitched three innings, yielding two runs, walked two, struck out four and had two pitch clock violations. The 6-foot-5 hurler earned his first win of the spring.
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