Tanner Houck received stitches and ‘got lucky’ after getting hit in the face by a line drive
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Houck was conscious the whole time following the scary play.
Tanner Houck was in a scary situation Friday night when Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka hit a line drive that struck the Red Sox pitcher’s face, causing him to bleed and leave the game.
Following the Red Sox’ 15-5 win, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Houck got lucky.
“He was conscious the whole time so that’s good,” Cora told reporters. “Obviously the cut. He’s in the hospital right now getting further tests. We’ll know more obviously at the end of the night, but we got lucky there.”
As the team awaits test results, Cora isn’t sure what the extent of Houck’s injury is, saying, “As of now, all I know is he’s conscious.”
“It’s not good. We reacted right away,” Cora added. “Like I said, he knew where he was right away and he kept saying he was fine. We’ve just gotta make sure we slow him down. I saw him while he was getting stitches. He got lucky. Let’s put it that way.”
As Cora mentioned, Houck appeared to get lucky on an unlucky play in the moments that followed the scary incident. Higashioka’s line drive came off his bat at 89.7 mph with the ball appearing to hit Houck below his eye and on his upper cheek. Houck was immediately bleeding from the play and went down, but was able to leave the field in less than a minute after he got hit.
Houck was immediately diagnosed with a facial contusion.
Despite the scary situation, Houck remained in good spirits as he was apparently cracking jokes before departing to the hospital, according to Red Sox pitcher Garrett Whitlock.
“It was scary,” Whitlock told reporters befitting going to visit Houck as the hospital. “But it could have been a lot worse.”
Still, that didn’t cause some other Red Sox teammates, such as Connor Wong, to be concerned.
“Obviously really scary,” Wong told reporters. “Any time the ball’s hit back towards the mound on a line, you’re kind of holding your breath. And then when you see it ricochet off in the upper-body, head area, it makes it even worse. And to see him just curling himself, it just made it all worse. I hope he’s doing all right.”
Houck had a solid outing Friday prior to the injury. He allowed just one run on four hits, one walk, and two strikeouts as he was in line to pick up his fourth win of the season.
Houck has pitched better as of late after struggling in the first month-plus of the season. While he’s gone 0-3 in his last five starts, he’s posted a 4.32 ERA while allowing 21 hits, eight walks, and has 26 strikeouts in 25 innings pitched.
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