By Conor Ryan
April 15, 2025 | 6:23 AM
There were plenty of warning signs this spring when it came to Tanner Houck.
Despite earning an All-Star nod in 2024, the veteran righty’s play dipped down the second half of last season — while his numbers during Grapefruit League action down in Florida (11.20) didn’t offer much relief over the last few monhs.
And while harping on spring-training stats is often a fruitless exercise, Houck struggles have carried over into regular-season action.
In what was an ugly 16-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays at Steinbrenner Field, Houck submitted one of the worst starts in franchise history — with Tampa seemingly teeing off against every offering sent over the plate from Houck.
Houck only lasted 2.1 innings in the lopsided loss, allowing 12 runs — 11 of which were earned — and giving up 10 hits, two walks, and just one strikeout against the 20 total batters he faced.
By the end of the third inning, the Red Sox were already staring at a 14-1 deficit — prompting a frustrated Alex Cora to harp on the current state of a Boston roster that has lost six of its last eight games.
“The defense has been bad. The offense has been bad. And we’ve been inconsistent pitching wise.” – Alex Cora.
Easily the most frustrated Cora has seemed this season. pic.twitter.com/llg12Yr5fZ
— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) April 15, 2025
“Defense has been bad; the offense has been bad. We’ve been inconsistent pitching-wise,” Cora said postgame. “Those are the three pillars of baseball and we haven’t been good.
“It seems like there was a team that was prepared for the other one [and] the other one wasn’t prepared for them,” Cora added. “And that goes from top all the way to the bottom. That wasn’t a good night for us and I’ll take the blame because it seemed like our team wasn’t ready to go.”
As noted by The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham, Houck’s ugly stat line might stand alone when it comes to the amount of hits and runs relinquished in such a short amount of time by a Sox pitcher.
“Since 1901, no Sox pitcher had allowed as many as 11 earned runs in as few as 2⅓ innings,” Abraham wrote. “The only one close was Doug Bird, who surrendered 11 over 2⅔ innings against the White Sox on May 24, 1983.”
Houck is now sporting a 9.16 ERA through four starts this season, relinquishing 19 earned runs over 18.2 innings of work.
The Rays in particular have been a thorn in the side of Houck over the last month. Tampa faced off against Houck during his final spring-training start — with the Rays tagging him for 12 hits and 10 runs in 3.2 innings in March.
Given Tampa’s recent track record of crushing Houck’s offerings, Cora was asked postgame if there’s a chance Houck is tipping his pitches to the Rays.
“I don’t believe so,” Cora told reporters, per NESN. “If you look at the balls they hit hard, they were in the middle of the plate. There were of course some balls that went by, we didn’t play good defense behind him. Good approach and they put some good swings on him.”
Houck’s struggles have been a regular concern for Boston dating back to last season, with the righty just 1-5 with a 5.38 ERA in 15 starts since last year’s All-Star break.
“Delivery is kind of been struggling in spring training,” Houck said postgame, per NESN’s Greg Dudek. “But not going to go into it too much right now. We’re going to take the night, come back tomorrow and figure it out.”
Get breaking news and analysis delivered to your inbox during baseball season.
