Red Sox bullpen wastes Houck's 7 strong innings in Toronto

After turning a 3-0 lead into a 3-4 deficit in the first inning of his last start, Tanner Houck badly needed a bounce-back outing.

And after the way Wednesday night’s game turned out — a 6-0 lead blown, and the Blue Jays walking it off in the 10th — the Red Sox needed a bounce-back win.

Houck got the job done. His team, not so much. They fell to the Blue Jays, 4-2, blowing a late lead for the second night in a row to drop the series.

“That’s part of baseball,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Tanner, he did an outstanding job.”

The Red Sox got seven strong innings from their starter. Houck held the Blue Jays to four hits, struck out six, hit one batter and didn’t issue a walk. The lone damage came on a solo homer by Daulton Varsho in the seventh.

Starting strong has been an issue for the righty all spring. Houck entered Thursday getting hit hard in first innings – a .483 batting average and 1.346 OPS – and hadn’t pitched a scoreless opening frame since his season debut on March 28.

That streak ended on Thursday night, as Houck not only pitched a scoreless first, but set the Blue Jays down in order, his first of three 1-2-3 innings. After allowing at least one run within the first three innings of each of his first six starts, he shut out the Blue Jays for 6 1/3 innings. Even after Varsho took him deep, Houck recovered and completed the seventh.

“I felt better, kind of all-around, especially in the delivery,” Houck told reporters, praising catcher Carlos Narváez. “It felt like ‘Narvy’ and I worked really well together today and stuck to the game plan all the way through.”

Unfortunately, the other issue in Houck’s starts isn’t one he can solve on the mound. He entered the contest receiving 3.1 runs of support per game from the lineup, the lowest in the rotation and firmly below the league average (4.2).

The Boston bats struggled against Jose Berrios when the Blue Jays came to Fenway in mid-April, and didn’t fare much better in the rematch. After going seven innings and holding the Red Sox to one earned run on four hits in their previous meeting, the Blue Jays starter went 6 2/3 and gave up two earned runs on seven hits; he threw 88 pitches in each.

The Red Sox collected a single apiece in the first three frames, and stranded all three men. By the end of the fourth, Berrios was up to six strikeouts; he finished with eight.

Boston briefly broke through in the fifth. Rob Refsnyder, a late lineup substitute after Kristian Campbell was scratched with right rib discomfort, led off with a single. He advanced to third when David Hamilton followed with a single and stolen base, making it the first inning with multiple baserunners.

Rafael Devers, the American League leader in walks, worked a free pass to load the bases for Alex Bregman, who’s more than lived up to expectations in his first spring with the Sox.

Bregman’s two-run double broke the scoreless stalemate. He owns an 11-game hitting streak, and his 19 extra-base hits lead the American League and are tied with Pete Alonso for second in the majors.

“We got some breathing room there, but it wasn’t enough,” Cora said.

The Red Sox only collected seven hits and one walk in the contest. They struck out 10 times and were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, with five men left on base.

Justin Slaten was also seeking a bounce-back outing when he replaced Houck in the eighth, having been walked off by Alejandro Kirk in the 10th the night before. Instead, the righty reliever picked up his first blown save of the season and took the loss for the second game in a row.

“He didn’t finish at-bats,” Cora said of Slaten. “Usually he puts them away, he didn’t tonight.”

Helped by home-plate umpire Eric Bacchus, who missed call after call throughout the game, the Blue Jays strung together a trio of one-out hits: a single by Nathan Lukes, double by Bo Bichette, and the ultimate dagger, a three-run go-ahead bomb by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

“Super frustrating,” Slaten told reporters. “It’s back-to-back nights where I feel like my stuff has been as good as it’s been in my life, and I just didn’t execute with two strikes, is what it comes down to.

“Can’t leave a slider in the middle of the plate to a good hitter like Bichette, (he) did exactly what he should’ve done to that pitch. And then the one to Vladdy, like we’re trying to throw the curveball below the zone, in the dirt, maybe leave it a little bit too high, and again, really good hitter makes a really good swing. So super frustrating, especially like in games like that, where (it’s) super close, every pitch matters.”

It was a tough night for Wilyer Abreu, too. After making three inning-ending outs on first pitches, the Red Sox right-fielder got a bad read on Bichette’s deep fly. As he fell backward on the warning track, the Blue Jays leadoff man’s hit fell to earth for the double.

Just like the night before, with the lead gone, the offense deflated. Trevor Story, Triston Casas and Refsnyder went in order in the ninth to slam the door on themselves.

Until the bottom of the seventh on Wednesday, the Red Sox had all the momentum in this series. They’ve now been held to two runs over their last 13 innings and lost back-to-back games after winning three in a row.

Thus ends a 3-3 road trip to Cleveland and Toronto. The Red Sox have lost five of their last eight games after going 6-1 in the previous seven. At 17-16, they’re teetering on the .500 precipice for what feels like the hundredth time this season.

And it’s only May 1.

Up next

Walker Buehler will miss his scheduled start against the Minnesota Twins on Friday after undergoing testing on his shoulder. It’s unclear whether he’ll need to go on the injured list or just miss a turn in the rotation.

“We’re working through a few things regarding Walker,” Cora told reporters on Thursday afternoon. “He hasn’t bounced back the way we wanted, so we have to wait.”

Brayan Bello will take the mound Friday, instead. Garrett Crochet will close out the series on Sunday, but Red Sox haven’t announced a starter for Saturday.