In one moment, this game was ruined. Let’s see if we can pinpoint it down to the individual frame:

As you can probably guess, this throw by Reese McGuire from the Leaning Tower of Pisa pose did not end well for the Red Sox. It was rushed, it was to the wrong base (you can see Devers pointing to first base in the picture), it resulted in an error, it resulted in a run, it nearly got Ceddanne Rafaela killed, and it ended Tanner Houck’s night. It was the sixth of seven consecutive plays in which the Red Sox win probably went down, and by the time the dust settled, the Twins had a win expectancy of 95.4 percent. Awful!

In better news, Tanner Houck nearly pulled off another great start; and this time, he did it without his best stuff. The final line reads four earned run allowed in 6.0 innings, but the big picture take away is that he took the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning having only surrendered one run despite inconsistent weaponry. Sometimes he was getting too much break on his off-speed pitches, and others, not enough. He was forced to battle.

The feel came and went, like a high powered racecar that wasn’t quite dialed in and needed an adjustment. He struck out five, walked two, and while that doesn’t sound too notable, it gains context when you add in that coming into this game Houck had struck out 41 and only walked five all year.

He didn’t really have it tonight, and yet he made a game of it while getting no help from his offense. The next step he needs to take to fulfill his quest to become and ace and not just a good starter is to find a way to wrap up an outing like this. Get through one more inning and walk off the mound under your own terms. Obviously the McGuire play boned him and took the ball out of his hands, but he also gave up two line drive singles before that happened.

Tonight, it probably didn’t matter as this feels like a game the Red Sox would have lost either way, but one of these outings Houck is going to have another chance to battle through seven strong innings with his stuff out of whack, and it’s going to result in 3-2 win, or something along those lines. That’s when he’ll transform into a really special pitcher! The best guys win even when they don’t have their “A” Game.

Another piece of good news is that Naoyuki Uwasawa was able to come into the game for Houck and pitch to the finish line. He couldn’t put the fire out in the seventh inning, and initially made things even worse with a pitch clock violation, but he did manage to pitch to the end and save the rest of the pen from any work. This is crucial for tomorrow given the Red Sox will be going with a bullpen game and will need as many fresh arms as possible.

Elsewhere on the diamond, the offense put forth a highly irritable showing. Two batters into the game, they had men on second and third with nobody out and a chance to take an early lead. Instead, they didn’t score a run until the eighth inning.

As bad as they were though, the play of the game (and not in a good way) was the McGuire miscue. Here it is in motion:

Three Studs

Rafael Devers:

The Red Sox only had four hits in this entire game. Devers had two of them, including a first inning double that should have set the table for an early lead. Alas, most everybody else sucked tonight.

Tanner and the Timer:

Tonight’s game was two hours and 21 minutes, but this is part of a larger pattern of fast games when Tanner Houck pitches. In seven starts this season, Tanner Houck’s games are averaging just two hours and 16 minutes. He’s taking the mound ready to work fast and jam it down the opponent’s throat. He’s controlling the tempo, and these not much teams can do to stop him with a timer in place. This is alpha behavior and I love it!

Ballpark sounds:

During the first couple innings of this game on the NESN 360 feed, there was no play by play as they were having audio issues. (Amazing how that happens when you skimp on the budget.) In any case, it gave us a couple of innings to just take in the ballpark sounds, which was actually quite lovely.

Three Duds

Reese McGuire:

In addition to the disastrous defensive play, he also went hitless at the plate.

Tyler O’Neill

He was at the center of not cashing in during that first inning opportunity. He also got another opportunity with a man on second in the eighth and struck out there too. Overall, he went 0-4 with three strikeouts.

Wilyer Abreu

He also went 0-4 with three strikeouts. And he, like O’Neill, also played a huge role in not cashing in at least one run from that golden opportunity in the first.

Red Sox Viewing PSA: The heathens who run Major League Baseball have once again decided this year that every Friday night, four lucky fanbases will have their team’s games hijacked off their regional sports networks and behind the paywall of another streaming platform. For New England viewing purposes, this means that three upcoming Friday night Red Sox games will be on Apple TV and not NESN. They are as follows:

May 24th: Brewers @ Red Sox (7:00pm)

May 31st: Tigers @ Red Sox (7:00pm)

June 28th: Padres @ Red Sox (7:00pm)

Fortunately, Apple TV happens to currently be offering a two month free trial, meaning you could get it now and be able to watch those three games without being forced to fork over additional cheese. Here’s a link for that. Just remember to cancel after the Padre game. (I’ll remind everybody in that game wrap.)