DETROIT — Tanner Houck was an All-Star last season, seemingly a breakthrough achievement for the righthander after what had been a muddled career with the Red Sox.
But the Midsummer Classic proved to be more of a brick wall than a launching pad for Houck, who has been one of the worst starters in the majors since.
His troubles continued on Monday night as Houck allowed 11 runs in a 14-2 loss against the Tigers.
In what was a momentum-stopping game for the Red Sox after two satisfying victories in Kansas City, Houck couldn’t get through the third inning.
It left the Sox 5-15 in games he has started since the second half of last season. Houck is 1-7 with a 5.81 earned run average and 1.49 WHIP over 105⅓ innings, a significant sample size.
Houck has only 62 strikeouts in that stretch. He faced 20 batters on Monday without a strikeout.
“Probably the most lost I’ve ever been,” Houck said. “Just not getting the job done, which weighs on me heavily.”
Sox manager Alex Cora would not commit to Houck making his next start.
“We’ll talk about it,” he said. “There were a lot of pitches in the middle of the zone … We’ll have to take a look at it and see what we do.”
Monday marked the second time this season that Houck allowed 11 earned runs over 2⅓ innings. Those are the two worst starts in franchise history.
The Tigers led, 2-0, after four pitches in the bottom of the first inning as Kerry Carpenter singled and Gleyber Torres blasted a fastball 432 feet to left-center for his fifth home run.
The third inning was a nightmare as the Tigers sent 14 batters to the plate and scored nine runs.
Carpenter doubled before Houck walked the next two batters to load the bases. Carpenter scored on a wild pitch before Riley Greene grounded a single into right field.
Wilyer Abreu let the ball skip by him and it went for a Little League three-run homer as everybody scored.
Houck retired the next batter before seven Tigers in a row reached. The battering included a three-run homer by Trey Sweeney.
Houck said there is no physical issue that would explain his slide.
“Just not good today. Come back tomorrow with a new attitude,” he said. “Trying to do my part whenever I’m out there and just didn’t do it.”
By the time Houck was finally lifted after 69 pitches, his earned run average had ballooned to 8.04 through nine starts. He allowed nine hits and walked three.
The Red Sox didn’t score against Tigers starter Jackson Jobe until Abreu homered leading off the sixth. He has homered five times in the last eight games and has 11 on the season.
Jobe (3-0) allowed just the one run over 5⅔ innings. The Sox managed only six hits, cashing it in after falling behind 11-0.
The only real positive of the night was Sean Newcomb going 5⅔ innings and throwing 98 pitches to save the bullpen.
It was the most pitches he had thrown in a major league game since April 7, 2019, when he had a 98-pitch start for the Braves.
“That’s the mentality, I want to go out there and pitch as much as possible when given the chance, Newcomb said. “It’s obviously not the best scenario.”
Rafael Devers singled and walked twice. He has reached safely in 11 of his last 12 plate appearances. Devers has a .407 on-base percentage and .901 OPS.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.