Red Sox waste Tanner Houck's latest sharp start in 4-1 loss to Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians had all week to prepare for Tanner Houck. After getting shredded by the 27-year-old right-hander in last week’s complete game shutout, the Guardians presumably studied the data, made their adjustments and came into Tuesday with a new plan of attack.

For most of the night, it didn’t work.

Houck was excellent once again, shutting the Guardians down over six-plus innings, but he eventually ran out of gas and got little support from the depleted Red Sox offense in the club’s eventual 4-1 loss.

Cleveland’s decisive breakthrough came in the bottom of the seventh. Trailing 1-0 after Houck tied them up through six scoreless innings, the Guardians tied the game with a leadoff double by Will Brennan and an RBI single by Tyler Freeman. Houck was pulled after subsequently walking Estevan Florial, and the Guardians ultimately touched the Red Sox bullpen for three runs to put the game away.

Houck was charged with two runs on five hits, three walks and four strikeouts over six-plus innings. Before the seventh inning he had posted 15 consecutive scoreless innings against the Guardians, and his ERA for the season is now 1.65.

Despite the chilly, rainy conditions that threatened throughout the afternoon, the game flew by as Houck and Cleveland starter Ben Lively went toe to toe. Neither side was able to score until the top of the seventh, when Wilyer Abreu broke the ice with a solo home run to deep right field.

That gave Houck his first lead of the day, but Cleveland finally mustered some resistance after Brennan and Freeman came through to tie the game at 1-1. Houck then walked Florial, ending his day, and left-hander Brennan Bernardino walked his first batter to load the bases with no outs.

Brayan Rocchio put Cleveland ahead with a sacrifice fly to left, and while the Guardians couldn’t get any more runs across in the seventh, they got two more in the eighth on a solo home run by Jose Ramirez and an RBI double by Florial off left-hander Cam Booser.

That set the stage for All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase, who shut the Red Sox down with three straight strikeouts in the top of the ninth for his seventh save of the season.

All told the Red Sox managed only six hits, struck out 12 times, went 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position and were undone by numerous baserunning blunders, including Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong both getting picked off at first base. Refsnyder did go 3 for 3 with a double, giving him four doubles through his first four games of the season since coming off the injured list.

The Red Sox are now 13-11 on the season.