Tanner Houck throws six scoreless as Red Sox beat Yankees 5-0 in first game of doubleheader

It looked for sure like Tanner Houck’s day was done.

Clinging to a 1-0 lead with one out and a runner on third in the top of the sixth, Houck walked Anthony Volpe with his 100th pitch of the day. Alex Cora came out, seemingly to take the ball and summon Brennan Bernardino from the bullpen, but instead the Red Sox manager opted to let his starter try and clean up his mess.

Houck delivered, and in doing so finished off one of the best starts of his career.

Houck was brilliant in Thursday’s 5-0 win over the New York Yankees, throwing six scoreless innings while pitching deep enough for Boston’s bullpen to finish the job. Houck struck out seven and threw a career-high 105 pitches, and though he walked three and allowed four hits, he scattered the baserunners across his outing and never let the Yankees do any damage.

The right-hander mostly breezed through his first four innings and didn’t run into real trouble until the fifth, when Oswald Peraza singled and Oswaldo Cabrera walked to lead off the inning. Houck worked his way out of trouble, striking out Aaron Judge to end the inning, and in the sixth he allowed a leadoff double to Gleyber Torres and walked Volpe before Cora came out for a chat.

After that, Houck drew a soft grounder that led to Torres being caught in a rundown between third and home, and he drew another groundout from Peraza to finish the outing strong.

All told New York went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven men. The Red Sox didn’t do much better for most of the game, but rookie Wilyer Abreu did come through with an RBI single to score Rafael Devers from third in the bottom of the first.

Fellow rookie Ceddanne Rafaela added his second career home run in the seventh, curling a shallow fly ball around Pesky’s Pole down the right field line, and Trevor Story finished things off with a three-run shot to straightaway center field in the eighth.

The two rookies continued their impressive stretch at the plate, with Rafaela finishing 2 for 4 with a homer and a double, and Abreu going 3 for 4 with a stolen base. Garrett Whitlock followed Houck with two perfect innings of relief and Chris Martin finished things off with a scoreless ninth.

Yankees starter Michael King, a Rhode Island native and a former Boston College star, allowed one run over 4.2 innings. He gave up six hits and a walk and struck out eight.