Tanner Houck, Red Sox in complete command in series-clinching win over the A’s

If Houck wanted more rope, Cora listened.

“He was very convincing, to say the least,” Cora said.

Houck’s earned that right, but when Cora came to the mound Thursday night with two outs and two on in the sixth inning of the Sox’s 7-0 win over the Oakland A’s, he wondered if it meant the end of the night for his pitcher.

The Sox were sitting on a cozy 5-0 lead and Houck had held the A’s hitless over the first 4 1/3 innings. But he started the sixth by giving up a leadoff single to Max Schuemann, then a two-out walk to Brent Rooker, missing on four straight pitches after jumping out to a 0-and-2 count.

“When you see the manager coming out, it goes through your head,” Houck said.

The conversation was straightforward.

“I said, ‘What do you got?’” Cora said. “He was like, ‘I got him.’ That was it.”

Cora trusted Houck. And even after Houck lost control of a splitter and the wild pitch moved Schuemann and Rooker into scoring position, Houck held up his end, getting Lawrence Butler to ground out to end the inning.

“I knew I still had more in the tank and just super thankful for the opportunity to stay out there and get that last guy,” Houck said, after he threw six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out six.

It was his fifth scoreless outing of the season and first since May 20 against the Rays.

The Sox (51-41) continued their surge to close out the first half of the season. They’ve won 18 of 25, including eight of their last 10. They’ve pulled themselves into the third wild-card spot by winning or tying 11 of 12 series (7-1-4), and improved their record in rubber games to 9-2 (6-0 at Fenway) while outscoring the opposition, 65-34, and winning five straight rubber games at home.

With an 8-6 record over 19 starts, Houck has become the All-Star arm the Sox rely on.

“He’s our guy, right,” Cora said. “I think he’s done an amazing job throughout the first part of the season and there’s going to be situations like that starting next week and we need him.”

Houck bounced back from his two shortest starts of the season. He lasted just 3⅓ innings against the New York Yankees last Friday after giving up four walks and two hits and he went just 4 innings against the San Diego Padres on June 29 when he gave up seven runs on nine hits.

He wasn’t happy with the three walks, (three), he wasn’t happy with the long counts he faced and he wasn’t happy how many times he fell behind, but Houck got back on track by finding the strike zone on 64 of his 103 pitches.

“I felt a lot better,” Houck said. “After the last two outings, I continued to show up to work every day, push myself to get better. It just shows that over a long time it works. Stick to the plan.”

The Sox, who came into the night 34-13 when scoring first, were jump started by a three-run first inning.

A night earlier, the Sox let a first-inning, bases-loaded situation slip away against lefthanded starter JP Sears. Thursday night, they loaded the bases again in the first frame, but with the A’s sending righthander Luis Medina to the mound, the Sox cashed in.

Jarren Duran walked to lead off the inning, then David Hamilton singled to right to make it first-and-second with no outs. Medina weaved through trouble by striking out Tyler O’Neill and Rafael Devers struck out, but then walked Connor Wong on four pitches.

That brought Masataka Yoshida to the plate, and even though Yoshida had been in a 4-for-23 slump (with seven strikeouts) over his past six games, he had been a threat all season with runners on base (.343 average, three home runs, 20 RBIs) particularly in scoring position (.342, one homer, 16 RBIs).

Yoshida delivered a line drive single to right that plated Duran and Hamilton. Wilyer Abreu followed with an RBI double to right that made it 3-0.

Medina lasted five innings, but the Sox stung him for six runs on seven hits. Wong tagged him for a solo homer in the third inning (his eighth). Abreu added another in the fourth (his eighth as well).

Yohsida added to the damage in the sixth with a two-run homer, shipping Kyle Muller’s 2-1 fastball into the Sox bullpen for his fourth homer of the season.

Yoshida went 2 for 4 with a homer and a season-high four RBIs. Wilyer Abreu went 3 for 4 with a homer, two RBIs and one run scored. Connor Wong went 2 for 3 with a homer and three runs scored.

Houck will make his first All-Star Game appearance next week in Arlington, Texas, and as he embraces the role of being an arm his team depends on, he delivered an outing that took some pressure off the offense.

“It’s unbelievable,” Abreu said. “I think consistency has been there the whole year and that’s why he’s having this kind of year. And I feel like he hasn’t missed his pitches too often. So I feel like that’s why he’s having such a good year.”

Houck is now at a career-high 117 innings pitched, and he’s optimistic about building on that as he stretches into uncharted territory in the second half.

“I’m super stoked with the consistency I’ve had in the first half,” Houck said. “It’s not done though. You can look back and easily be satisfied with it, but I want more. I want to continue to go deeper into games, continue to go out there with my best stuff every night and just ultimately put the team in the best position to win.”

Julian Benbow can be reached at [email protected].