Early on it was looking like an old-school pitcher’s duel, with Boston starter Tanner Houck and Seattle’s George Kirby posting scoreless innings with such efficiency it felt like the game might take less than an hour and a half to finish.
Then Houck hit a wall, and once the Mariners had daylight they stomped their foot on the gas and left the Red Sox in the dust.
The second time through the order once again proved Houck’s undoing as the righty got battered after dominating the Mariners through the game’s opening innings. That, plus another bullpen meltdown, helped lead to a 10-1 loss, which extended Boston’s losing streak to four straight.
As has often been the case throughout his career, Houck was terrific out of the gate. Houck faced one batter over the minimum through the fourth and retired the first 11 batters he faced, mowing down the Mariners the first time through the order before Julio Rodriguez finally got Seattle its first baserunner with a two-out double.
Things turned quickly in the fifth, however, when the Mariners greeted Houck with three straight hits to start the inning, including a towering two-run home run by catcher Cal Raleigh into the right field bleachers.
Seattle added another run in the sixth when Ty France led off the inning with a double, reached third on a Verdugo throwing error back to the infield and then scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Eugenio Suárez moments later. The switch hitting Raleigh didn’t treat the Red Sox bullpen any kinder either, demolishing a two-run shot off Brennan Bernardino that cleared the Green Monster and effectively put the game out of reach.
Houck’s struggles facing opposing lineups multiple times aren’t new and remain his most vexing weakness as a starting pitcher. Entering Monday opposing batters were hitting .130 their first time up against him, but .364 the second time up and .300 the third time.
His effectiveness has generally tailed off significantly deeper into outings too. Between pitches 1-50 opposing batters have hit .173 against Houck, but once he’s up to 51 pitches and above? The number balloons to .353.
How does he explain that disparity?
“If I had an answer I think we wouldn’t be talking about it,” Houck said. “I feel like later innings are getting better with more experience and continuing to work with it, so it’s one of those things where just continue to go out there, continue to work between starts and push myself to be better.”
“I think the stuff is still the same,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We talk about throwing your best pitches as much as possible, especially late in the outing, just one of those we have to keep working and helping him get better.”
Kirby, meanwhile, was lights out all the way through. Though he allowed back-to-back singles to Alex Verdugo and Justin Turner in the bottom of the first, he promptly got Devers to ground into an inning-ending double play and more or less cruised from there.
Boston’s only run came in the sixth when Devers drove in Jarren Duran with a two-out double. The Red Sox also had a golden opportunity to get back in the game in the seventh when they loaded the bases against Seattle reliever Gabe Speier, but Verdugo weakly lined out to short to end the threat.
In the end, Kirby finished with one run allowed over 6.2 innings, while Houck gave up four over five-plus. Seattle also torched the Red Sox bullpen, with Raleigh taking Bernardino deep in the sixth and the Mariners collectively hanging four runs on lefty Richard Bleier, including a two-run shot by Suárez.
According to Mariners statistician Alex Mayer, Raleigh is the first catcher to homer from both sides of the plate in the 112-season history of Fenway Park, a feat made more remarkable by the fact that Jason Varitek called Fenway home for 15 seasons.
Newly acquired shortstop Pablo Reyes pitched the ninth, becoming the first position player to take the mound for Boston this year. He fed the Mariners a diet of cartoonish eephus pitches, the slowest of which was clocked at only 34.4 mph, but managed to scrape by with only one run allowed despite allowing two hits and two walks .
Though Kirby has emerged as one of the American League’s most productive starting pitchers, the Red Sox offense hasn’t looked good for a couple of days now. Dating back to Friday the Red Sox have only scored five runs in their last 28 innings, and between that and Kenley Jansen’s blown saves over the weekend the club has now lost six of its last seven games.
Nick Pivetta (2-3, 6.23 ERA) will look to get the Red Sox back on track Tuesday when he takes the mound against Seattle’s Luis Castillo (2-1, 2.70). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
Just as the Red Sox bullpen was finally getting healthy, the club suffered another apparent injury setback as John Schreiber left the game with the trainer in the seventh inning due to right lat tightness.
Cora said afterwards that Schreiber will need a stint on the injured list, and Schreiber said he’s been dealing with the issue over the past week and have it further evaluated in the morning.
“It’s been tight a little bit this past week,” Schreiber said. “I was throwing some bullpens and it was coming out good, felt like something I could get through and all that kind of stuff, and tonight it was coming out really good I thought, just that last pitch maybe a little too much extension and it tightened up.”
In addition, lefty Brennan Bernardino was also seen getting hugs and farewells from teammates and staffers in the clubhouse following the game, and according to multiple reports he is being sent down to Triple-A. Between him and Schreiber the Red Sox will need to add two pitchers to the active roster, though righty Kutter Crawford (hamstring) is expected to return Friday in San Diego assuming his last rehab outing in Worcester on Tuesday goes smoothly.