Last night, June 16th, the Boston Red Sox welcomed the New York Yankees to Fenway Park for the first time this season, as well as the second time the two division rivals face off this season. The pitching matchup was slated for Domingo Germán of the Yankees against Tanner Houck of the Red Sox. At the end of four innings at the stadium, the Red Sox fandom had a lot to be cheering for. Their team was blowing out their rivals with the score of 13-1, supported by the huge bats of Justin Turner and Masataka Yoshida. Turner was 3-3 to that point, with a double in the first, a 2-run homerun in the second and a grand slam in the third. Rookie Yoshida, who was 0-11 in the entire first series against the Yankees, hit a 2-run double in the first, an RBI single in the third and another single in the fourth. 

Tanner Houck would take the mound in the fifth inning with 56 pitches under his belt, only allowing 1 run on 3 hits, 1 walk and throwing 2 strikeouts. Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka would be the first player Houck would face in the inning. Houck would throw three sliders to start off Higashioka, the first a called strike down in the strike zone, the second a swinging strike away off the plate and the last a ball away in the dirt. Houck’s fourth pitch would be a sinker on the outside of the plate, that Higashioka would be able to get a handle of and make contact. 

After he did however, the cheerful crowd was immediately filled with gasps and concern as the ball hit Tanner Houck in the face and deflected over to third baseman Rafael Devers. Houck, in clear pain was on his knees, both hand and glove covering his face. The training staff would immediately head over to check the pitcher as the whole stadium waited. For a quick second as Houck was being tended to, he revealed a gash on his right cheek with blood. It was then that the training staff covered it with a towel.

Houck was able to stand under his own power and make the walk over to the dugout with the training staff. Before heading in he gave a fist pump motion to signal he was alright as the whole stadium gave their pitcher a standing ovation. Houck while conscious, would receive stitches at the stadium before heading over to Mass General Hospital for further evaluation. While there Houck was diagnosed with a facial fracture. The Red Sox released a statement earlier today that Houck is at home resting in stable condition, and that he would have follow-up appointments next week which will determine what is next as well as a treatment plan.

Red Sox Manager Alex Cora during his postgame presser said, “We reacted right away and like I said, he knew where he was right away and he kept saying he was fine. We just have to make sure we slow him down. I saw him while he was getting stitches. I mean, he got lucky. Let's put it that way.” Houck truly is lucky and the news of his diagnosis, although cloudy in terms of his return, provides relief to all especially Kyle Higashioka.

Higashioka said that during the game several Red Sox players had notified him that Houck had appeared fine. Even after the game, Higashioka reached out to Red Sox outfielder Rob Refsnyder who was a former teammate of Higashioka within the Yankees system, to check in and make sure Houck was okay. The play shook him up for obvious reasons as he said, “Because we all want to compete on the field and you want to knock him out of the game by getting hits. You don’t want to see him go down with an injury. It’s just not something I enjoy seeing. I’m glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have possibly been.”

Although the news is brighter than what could have been, it sucks that Houck’s performance does not show up in the win column as he stays at 3-6 on the year.