Tanner Houck will get the start for the Red Sox in Friday night’s series opener in Chicago against the White Sox, a team that has dominated the American League Central, entering Wednesday night with a 80-58 record.
In 12 appearances (10 starts), Houck has been a significant boost to the rotation, carrying a 3.26 ERA while fanning 62 in 49⅔ innings. Despite not going deep into games — due to his lack of success when a batting order sees him for the third time — Houck is effective in the innings he does give the Red Sox.
Houck’s slider remains his greatest weapon. In 58 plate appearances hitters are batting just .189 against his slider. It’s a devastating pitch not only because of its sweep but also because of Houck’s sidearm angle.
Even though he’s still getting the feel of his split-finger, something Houck said will be crucial if he wants to face batting orders a third time, the righthander’s slider is what makes him dominant at times. One Red Sox scout called it an 80 pitch on a 20-80 scale.
Houck had a slider in high school but he leaned on his curveball because he saw Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw throw his signature 12-6 curve with such success. Yet Houck’s coaches at University of Missouri saw it differently.
“Whenever I first got in there, they were like, ‘Hey, your slider’s way better than your curveball,’ ” Houck said recently. “And after that point, it just felt very comfortable. It felt like I never had to like just force it.”
The movement on the slider, though, didn’t really take shape until 2019. Dave Bush, who was the Red Sox pitching coordinator at the time, called Houck into his office. He showed him how Chris Sale threw his slider and how it worked. At the time, Houck used a spike grip on the pitch. Bush thought Houck could be more effective if he made one tweak.
“I love getting the top two creases on my fingers on those seams,” he said, “just so it gives me kind of like a guideline of like, ‘All right, this is where I’m at.’ And then whenever I’ve gotten in a funk with feeling it, I resort back to where’s my finger placement? What am I feeling like? It all comes down to pitching [being] very much a feeling thing.”
As the Red Sox remain in the hunt for a wild-card spot in a race that will likely come down to the final days of the season, Houck gets the ball first in what is a pivotal series for Boston.
The White Sox are an aggressive bunch, hitting .364 on first pitches. It will be important for Houck to have the slider that has gotten him to this point.
“I’ve been pretty happy with how I’ve been performing with it,” he said.
The Sox have yet to name a starter for Saturday, but Sale will go on Sunday.
Getting healthier
The Red Sox are beginning to get some players back from the COVID-related injured list. Kiké Hernández rejoined the lineup Tuesday. Christian Arroyo is in Boston with the team. Manager Alex Cora said that the infielder still has some doctor appointments, adding that Arroyo got hit pretty hard by the virus. Martín Pérez is also in Boston. The goal for the rest of the group that was placed on the COVID list during the Rays series is to rejoin the team when it heads to Chicago Thursday. When those players will be activated is still to be determined. “We’ll sit down as a group and go from there,” Cora said. “Maybe some of them, they just need to throw one bullpen or two bullpens and do that. In the case of Xander [Bogaerts], he probably doesn’t need much.” … Kyle Schwarber and Alex Verdugo got off days on Wednesday night in the series finale against Tampa Bay, though both pinch hit in the eighth inning of the Sox’ 2-1 win. Verdugo singled, and Schwarber grounded into a fielder’s choice before scoring on Hunter Renfroe’s go-ahead homer.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him @byJulianMack.