*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
Tanner Houck has looked like an ace in his first 3 major league starts. Houck struck out 10, Christian Vazquez hit a grand slam, and the Boston Red Sox blew past the Atlanta Braves with an 8-2 win on Saturday. Houck, the 10th ranked prospect in the organization, has been a glimmer of light in an otherwise dark season for the Red Sox, who are last in the AL East.
The Red Sox got all of their runs in the second inning, which started with a two run homer for Bobby Dalbec to make it 2-0. Michael Chavis then scored on a fielders choice to make it 3-0, and Xander Bogaerts hit an RBI single to make it 4-0. Vazquez then capped off the scoring with a grand slam to left, going 424 feet to make it 8-0. In the 5th, Dansby Swanson got the Braves on the board with a solo homer, and Freddie Freeman scored on a throwing error in the 8th to make it 8-2, which held.
The homer to Swanson was the first earned run allowed by Houck this season, as he has a sparkling 0.53 ERA after his 3 starts. Houck got the win, improving to 3-0. Houck threw 6 innings, allowing one run on 3 hits and 3 walks, striking out 10 hitters. Houck said after the game that ''I've got a lot of confidence right now, but this game is not a sprint, it's a marathon. You've got to go out and produce outing to outing, year to year. There's a lot of work to be done still. But I'm ready to put in the work.''
The Red Sox bullpen was able to lock it down after Houck left the game, securing the win. Philips Valdez was responsible for the run in the 8th inning, but that was all the Braves could muster. Austin Brice worked a scoreless 7th inning, and Andrew Triggs locked things down in the 9th.
Tucker Davidson took the loss for the Braves in his major league debut, going 1 2/3 innings. Davidson allowed 7 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks, getting two strikeouts. Davidson said after the game that ''I got a little too excited and tried to do too much instead of taking that step back and going back to what I do, I'm frustrated for sure, but this isn't my first bad outing and it's probably not going to be my last. This game's incredibly hard.''
The teams play the final game of the regular season on Sunday, with the Red Sox out of the playoffs and the Braves having locked up the second seed in the NL playoff picture. Nick Pivetta gets the start for the Red Sox against Bryse Wilson for the Braves.
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