Red Sox place Tanner Houck on 15-day IL, will be re-evaluated at the end of the week
The Red Sox will also have to fill a spot in their starting rotation.
Tanner Houck was placed on the 15-day injured list by the Red Sox on Sunday, two days after he suffered a facial fracture when he was hit by a line drive in his outing against the Yankees.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora shared prior to Sunday’s doubleheader that the team has no timetable for Houck’s return, but he appears to be doing better.
“He’s going to see the doctor at the end of the week, then go from there,” Cora told reporters. “I don’t know if surgery is needed or not. All I know is talking to [Garrett Whitlock] this morning, he finally got some rest yesterday. He’s feeling better.”
Houck suffered the injury in the fifth inning of Friday’s game when Kyle Higashioka hit a line drive that hit him in the face. Houck went down and immediately began bleeding as it looked like he suffered a cut on his cheek. He left the field on his own power moments later.
Following Friday’s game, Cora said that Houck “got lucky” as to where he was hit on his face. Houck’s injury required stitches but he remained conscious following the incident and went to Mass General Hospital for evaluation.
“Tanner Houck was evaluated last night at Mass General Hospital,” the team wrote in a statement on Saturday.” He suffered a facial fracture but is currently resting at home in stable condition. Follow-up appointments next week will determine next steps and a treatment plan.”
Cora mentioned that Houck could rejoin the team soon, but he’s happy that it appears the pitcher avoided a much more serious injury.
“Probably he’ll stop by probably later on today if he feels OK,” Cora said. “If not, he doesn’t. As of now, he’s a tough kid. We knew that. Like I said before, we were lucky. He was lucky. The fact that he’s going to be OK, that means a lot.”
Houck’s injury, plus the postponement of Saturday’s game, caused the Red Sox to have to juggle around their starting rotation. Kaleb Ort was called up from Triple-A and filled in Houck’s spot on the roster as he started Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader.
Brayan Bello will start Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader after he was scheduled to start Saturday. James Paxton’s next start was pushed back a day, starting on Monday against the Twins and not against the Yankees on Sunday.
But the Red Sox will have to do more shuffling to the starting rotation later in the week. Kutter Crawford, who took Chris Sale’s spot in the rotation after he was placed on the 60-day injured list earlier in June, will start Tuesday’s game against the Twins and Garrett Whitlock will start the following day.
The Red Sox don’t have a starter for Thursday’s game though. Nick Pivetta and Corey Kluber seem like the most likely in-house candidates to get the nod for Thursday’s game in Minnesota after they were both demoted to the bullpen last month.
However, Cora said the team still has to weigh its options across the roster before picking a starter for Thursday.
“It all depends what we want to do. Especially with Kutter,” Cora said, alluding to the fact that Crawford has pitched in four or fewer innings in his last three starts. “Is it good for the 26-[man roster] for Pivetta to start and then what do we do in the bullpen? So those are conversations we’re going to have. And we’ll decide what we do later on.”
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