Houck struggles with command in uncharacteristic start

BOSTON -- Tanner Houck doesn’t have a nickname, but a fitting one for this season would be Mr. Automatic.

Every five or six days, Houck would take the ball for the Red Sox and perform with machine-like consistency.

The script played over and over again until Saturday, when on Houck’s 28th birthday, it went woefully off course in an 11-1 loss to the Padres at Fenway Park.

The birthday cake -- if he even had any -- wasn’t likely to taste very good for the righty, whose breakout season hit a pothole that added up to nine hits and eight runs (seven earned) over 4 1/3 innings in which he walked one and struck out four.

Houck lacked command of his most dominant pitch -- his slider -- and he paid for it.

“I mean, it's gonna happen,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “The great ones have bad games and today, the slider wasn’t great. They put together some good at-bats. Manny [Machado] got two sliders in the zone and put good swings on it. They're a good offensive club. They did a good job against him.”

Over his first 16 starts this season, Houck allowed two homers. He surrendered three on Saturday, two of them by Machado.

“I just left too many pitches [over the] middle, with all my pitches,” said Houck. “Other than that, I just kind of sucked.”

For the Red Sox, the rare misstep by their 2024 ace would have been easier to shake off had it not come on the heels of Friday night’s 9-2 loss, when Nick Pivetta didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.

“Like I’ve said all year, I take pride in going deeper into games and wanting to give us the best chance to win. Didn't do that today,” said Houck. “That doesn’t define me now, doesn’t define me in the future. Just come back, work and get back out there the next outing and put this one behind me.”

With Houck now at a career-high 107 2/3 innings (though he did carry a heavier workload in Minor League seasons), it’s fair to wonder if he’s hitting the lull many pitchers hit around the midpoint of a season.

Houck, who has a strong pitcher’s build, feels he is doing everything in his power to combat that.

“Stay on top of my routine. Get in the weight room. Get in the training room. Do stuff off the field that I know helps,” said Houck. “That helps my body to come back stronger and feel better. That’s all you can do. The rest of it will take care of itself.”

Over one rough afternoon, Houck’s ERA jumped from 2.18 to 2.67. He is still a top candidate to make the All-Star team.

Talk about changing speeds
With the Red Sox on the wrong end of a blowout for the second straight day, Cora did his best to preserve his bullpen when he asked first baseman Dom Smith to pitch the top of the ninth.

Smith happened to be next to bench coach Ramon Vázquez when the Red Sox were trying to figure out who to send out there.

“I was like, ‘Have you pitched?’” said Cora. “He was like, ‘I pitched in high school.’ I was like, ‘Do you want to pitch in the big leagues?’ He said, ‘Yes, why not?’ And he went out there. I hated the situation, but we needed to do it.”

If nothing else, it provided some levity, as Smith was throwing softball-style blooper pitches though overhand. Of the lefty’s seven pitches, six were strikes. He retired three of the four batters he faced, with only the master of bat control, Luis Arraez, somehow hitting his 31.9 mph “slider” for a single.

“I’d say I enjoyed Arraez getting the hit off of me,” said Smith. “That was pretty crazy. He was sitting there. It looked like he wasn't gonna swing the bat, kind of had the bat in one hand. And I felt like he [decided] to swing halfway through and hit the line drive back up the middle on the 32 mph pitch.

“That shows how good he is as a hitter. I was trying to have fun with it -- drop down a little bit. I was throwing a couple knuckle curves. Trying to get out of it without having my guys out there up and running too much.”

Here were the speeds on the seven pitches: 40.2, 40.1, 48.6, 60.8, 48.9, 31.9 and 45.9.