Houck solidifying spot in Red Sox rotation

NEW YORK -- Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck was dealing for most of Saturday night’s game at Yankee Stadium. But two home runs proved costly and helped the Yankees pick up the victory, 3-1, in front of a sellout crowd of 46,061.

It might have been Houck’s best game of the season. He pitched six innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out six.

"He pitched really well,” said Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. “He commands the slider really well. With the sinker, that combo does damage.”

Early on, Houck had his way with the Bronx Bombers, not allowing a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning when Torres swung at the first pitch and hit the ball over the right-field wall to give New York a 1-0 lead.

“When I got to the second at-bat, I just felt like he was going to attack me earlier, and I took advantage of that pitch,” Torres said. “I hit it really well. But he pitched really well. His command was really awesome for him."

Houck didn’t let the homer bother him. He held the Yankees scoreless from that point until the sixth inning when he faced Willie Calhoun. Houck was trying to throw his splitter low in the dirt, but Calhoun was able to get enough of it and hit the ball over the right-field wall for his fifth home run of the season.

“I think his mix was outstanding,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about Houck. “He is throwing strikes, which is the most important thing. He is being aggressive using his best pitches as much as possible. If he does that, we’ll be fine.”

Houck is still learning about pitching. He is in his third full season in the big leagues and his first full year as a starter.

“It’s continuing to develop, continuing to work, continuing to make the right adjustments after something like [the Torres home run] happens and reining it back in,” Houck said. “[It’s] continuing to get better each game. It’s about putting a full 162 [games] together. It’s not just about this year. It’s about years down the line. Continuing to store that memory bank of what to do when everything is going well.”

Yankees right-hander Domingo Germán put up zeros until the sixth inning, when Rafael Devers hit a towering fly ball with an exit velocity of 108.4 mph a Statcast-projected 417 feet over the center-field wall for his 15th home run of the season, tying the score at 1. It was Devers’ 21st career home run against New York, his most against any opponent.

“Germán was good. We put some good swings on him. We put together good at-bats, but we were not able to score runs. He is having a great season,” Cora said.

The Red Sox had chances to score more, but they went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. In the second inning, they had runners on second and third with two outs, but Kiké Hernández lined out to shortstop Anthony Volpe to end the threat.

In the following inning with Justin Turner on third base, it looked as if Devers might have an extra-base hit, but left fielder Jake Bauers made a nice leaping catch to end the inning.

“We hit the ball hard early on in the game,” Cora said. “Their bullpen did a good job. We put together good at-bats and we didn’t finish them. We didn’t score enough runs.”