Alex Cora limits Tanner Houck to 5 innings in Red Sox win despite low pitch count, dominant effort

BOSTON — Alex Cora’s approach to how long to keep Tanner Houck in the game Saturday, was a baseball variation of better to leave too early than stay too late.

The Red Sox manager learned his lesson from six days before. On Sunday against these same Indians, Houck was outstanding for five innings but in the sixth things went downhill. Whether it was Houck tiring or the heart of the Indians batting order seeing the Red Sox pitcher for the third time, he wasn’t as sharp and they were a lot better.

The Indians scored three times in the sixth setting the table for their come-from-behind win.

So Cora took no chances Saturday in a scoreless game in a pennant race. Houck was outstanding again for five innings. He’d thrown just 68 pitches (47 strikes) and had allowed no runs, no walks and just three hits while striking out seven.

But when those five innings were done, so was Houck. Cora wasn’t giving Cleveland a third look at him and gave a terse answer when asked about whether it was a hard decision to lift him.

“We’re going to manage the game the way we feel is appropriate to win ballgames,” Cora said. ” He did an amazing job for five innings.”

Houck’s fastball and slider have been very effective for him against Major League hitters. But to be effective and go deep in games most starters have at least three pitches and sometimes more. Houck entered this year trying to fine-tune a split-fingered fastball. That process is still in progress. But he left Saturday’s game, which was a no-decision for him and a win for the Red Sox, feeling more confident throwing the splitter than ever before.

“I think a lot of pieces came together today. Slider was pretty good, especially whenever I needed it,” he said. “The splitter was definitely the go-to offspeed pitch today. I’m incredibly excited to have that pitch as effective as it is now. It’s been a long year of learning and developing that pitch and pushing myself to make that as big a weapon as it is now.”

Cora will obviously decide whether to extend Houck in future starts, but Houck thought keeping the splitter as a consistent weapon would help his cause.

“It’s definitely going to be the biggest part. Having that third pitch to keep hitters off-balance,” he said. “Working the four and two-seam (fastballs) and not getting to 3-2 counts with every hitter or behind the hitters. We talked, me and (pitching coach Dave Bush), about going on the attack. When a batter goes to 0-1, their batting average significantly drops. When you go to 0-2 it drops even more. It puts you in such an advantage count that you don’t have to play a fastball cookie in there. It opens the window for all your best pitches and all your nasty stuff to come out.”