Tanner Houck pitched a three-hit shutout to help the Boston Red Sox end a two-game losing streak by beating the Cleveland Guardians, 2-0, Wednesday.
Houck (3-1) struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter. He threw 94 pitches, 69 for strikes. It was the first complete game of Houck’s career, and the first complete game by a Red Sox pitcher since Nathan Eovaldi in May 2022.
The Red Sox were limited to five hits, and two of them came from Connor Wong. After hitting a solo home run in the third, Wong singled in the seventh. Wong’s home run was his third of the season.
Boston also received two hits from Jarren Duran — a single and a double — and a single from Pablo Reyes.
Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor and Gabriel Arias had the Cleveland hits, all of which were singles.
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The official time of Wednesday’s game was one hour, 49 minutes.
The victory improved Boston’s home record to 3-6. The Guardians fell to 9-3 on the road.
Cleveland starting pitcher Ben Lively (0-1) gave up two runs on three hits in five innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
The Guardians received a scoreless inning of relief from Nick Sandlin and two scoreless innings from Wes Parsons.
The Red Sox struck first when Reyes scored from third on a Lively balk with two outs in the bottom of the third. Reyes reached on a leadoff single, and moved to third on Duran’s one-out double.
Boston doubled its lead on Wong’s home run to left center in the fourth.
Boston’s Rafael Devers was in the lineup as the designated hitter after leaving Tuesday’s game in the seventh inning with discomfort in his left knee. Devers was 0 for 4 and struck out three times.
It was Boston’s first victory in the four-game series. Cleveland won Monday’s matchup 6-0, and prevailed 10-7 in 11 innings Tuesday. The four-game set wraps up Thursday.