Last week, the Cleveland Guardians won three of four games against the Boston Red Sox. However, they were unable to overcome Tanner Houck, who threw his first career complete game against them.
The Guardians will face Houck again at home on Tuesday night, aiming to put up a better performance and win their fifth consecutive game. Under first-year manager Stephen Vogt, Cleveland holds an impressive 16-6 record and a plus-52 run differential, scoring an AL-high 124 runs.
The Guardians’ pitching staff ranks among the best in the AL in terms of team ERA (3.03), opponents’ batting average (.218), and strikeouts (209). “Anytime you can win early in the season, those are wins no one can take away from us,” said Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti. “That gives us a great foundation for the season.”
Over the weekend, the Guardians swept the Oakland Athletics in three home games, outscoring them 22-7. They have a 6-3 home record and have won four straight games there. “I think everything’s just kind of coming together,” said Cleveland pitcher Tanner Bibee.
One of the highlights of the Guardians’ early season was scoring 21 runs over four games in Boston last week. However, in their only loss of the series, a 2-0 defeat on Wednesday, Cleveland was shut down by Houck (3-1, 1.35 ERA). In the game, which lasted just 1 hour and 49 minutes, Houck allowed singles to Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and Gabriel Arias and struck out nine batters without issuing a walk. It was Boston’s first individual shutout since June 2022.
“Go out there and get strike one, strike two and get these guys out,” said Houck. “You can bask in that stuff after. But definitely just going out there focused and knowing what I had to do.”
Houck, who is in his fourth full major league season, has never won more than six games in a year. However, he is already halfway to matching that mark and has only allowed four earned runs in 26 2/3 innings, all of which came on April 12 against the Los Angeles Angels.
Houck is part of a Red Sox rotation that has started the season strong, leading the majors with a 1.73 ERA. Boston’s pitching staff was dominant in their three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend, allowing only four runs and striking out 25 batters with six walks.
However, Boston needs to find a way to stop the Guardians’ offense, which had 10 extra-base hits at Fenway Park last week. Arias went 6-of-17 with two doubles, a triple, and three RBIs against the Red Sox this month. Teammate Steven Kwan is batting .358 on the season but went 0-for-4 against Houck last week.
Houck will face the Guardians’ Ben Lively (0-1, 3.60 ERA), who allowed two runs, three hits, and a walk while striking out seven in five innings at Boston during his Cleveland debut. Boston catcher Connor Wong hit a home run off Lively last week and is batting .319 this season.
