Pitcher List Conversations are transcripts of interviews with professional baseball players — and sometimes, players discuss topics other than baseball. This has been lightly edited for clarity.
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The Boston Red Sox visited Coors Field on July 22-24, when they were still reeling from being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend. They surely hoped a series against the Colorado Rockies would allow them to re-set. However, they finished the three-game series with only one win (though Alex Cora’s extension would be announced during the third game).
I spoke with Tanner Houck on July 23, the day after he’d gone six innings, giving up 10 hits, four for runs (all earned), walked three, and struck out two. The Red Sox lost the game 8-9 in extra innings.
When I got the the Red Sox clubhouse, they were blasting (seriously, the music was LOUD) Kendrick Lamar and getting ready for the evening’s game while I spoke with Houck. It’s also worth noting that he changed his socks (standing up!) while answering questions.
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Renee Dechert: What did you do with your splitter to turn it from a volatile pitch to a more reliable one this year?
Tanner Houck: I think first, throwing it in the zone more. I made a slight grip change going into Spring Training. It felt comfortable in my hand right away. And from there, it just kind of took off. It’s getting more depth this year than years past, which adds another layer to my repertoire, having a sinker that simply has a lot of run, the splitter that can go a little bit more down than the slider.
RD: Was it just the pitch grips that you changed, or were there some mechanical adjustments as well?
TH: Mainly, just a grip change. Before, it was more of a traditional split, and it just didn’t really work for me. I would get it sometimes, sometimes not. So just a slight grip change there, and everything else just kind of took off with it.
RD: How do you approach lefties and righties now?
TH: Really just trying to throw all three pitches in any count and don’t get too predictable.
But that being said, if a pitch isn’t quite feeling right that day, kind of picking and choosing whenever I want to use it properly.
RD: How did you go about making these changes when you were preparing for the season? And how receptive were you to making these changes?
TH: Andrew Bailey brought it up in our first few meetings, and I’m open to anything. I’m open to giving anything a try and give it the full time of day because you never know, really, when something’s going to click for you. Even if you can take, like, 1% away from a mindset standpoint or a field standpoint, I think that’s the best thing you can do.
RD: What’s it like as a pitcher, working with Andrew Bailey?
TH: It’s great. I mean, he brings high energy every day. If you have a question and he doesn’t know the answer, I mean he’ll get back to you within 15-20 minutes and have an answer for you.
And he’s very, very open to multiple ideas and multiple philosophies. And you’re not just a pitching coach: You’re also a therapist at the same time when stuff isn’t going right, and you just don’t always feel confident or whatever it is, but he wears many hats.
RD: So some random questions. You had the complete game shutout against Cleveland. What was that like?
Tanner Houck CGSO:https://t.co/bmC6uTxdWn
— Renee Dechert (@ReneeDechert) July 29, 2024
TH: It was great. In a full season, there’s certain outings where you feel like you can do no wrong, and that was one of those nights where everything was clicking. Any pitch I wanted to throw at any time, I felt like I could. Definitely a game that I’ll look back on and remember for sure.
RD: Last year on June 16, you had the comebacker from Kyle Higashioka that hit you in the face. We remembered that in Colorado because Ryan Feltner experienced a skull fracture from one last year. What was that experience like for you to come back from?
TH: Honestly, it’s a scary moment — scary moment for a lot of people with the whole thing. It didn’t really faze me. There wasn’t a lot of pain with it. There wasn’t a lot of nerves coming back from it.
You know, I kept saying after it happened that you sort of just put a random number on it. But it threw, like, a million pitches in my life, and it’s only happened once, so you know . . . . It’s, unfortunately, part of the game when you’re standing 60 feet, six inches away, and someone’s swinging an object trying to hit something in play. It’s part of the game. It’s a freak accident. I didn’t really let it faze me.
[WEEI broadcaster Rob Bradford shared with me this 3-D mold of the fracture Houck had made after the incident.]
RD: What’s your favorite pitch you’ve thrown this year?
TH: I don’t know. I don’t think I necessarily have a favorite one.
The first one that kind of comes to mind is an at-bat where I got to showcase all three of my pitches. I started out sinker, and then I went slider, and then I went to a split down, and the guy threw his bat into the net behind. Those are always fun to see.
RD: When was that?
TH: I don’t remember. I think it was against the Cubs, maybe? I don’t ever remember off top my head.
I just kind of remember the sequence of events because those are the three pitches that I throw, and it was to a right-handed hitter. So to be able to do that, it was a really fun, kind of a surreal moment having all three of those lineup like that.
Here’s the slider:
And the sinker:
And the pièce de résistance, the splitter:
RD: If you could take one pitch from any pitcher you could, whose would you take and why?
TH: Hmm . . . Probably take Kenley Jansen’s cutter.
RD: Why?
TH: It’s a freak of nature with the movement by how at times it’ll be, like, 20 vert at negative eight. Just adding that, I think, to my repertoire would shock a lot of people. If I could maintain that with the sinker, that’d be a pretty hard combo to match.
RD: When I asked Cal Quantrill this question, he said your sinker.
TH: Ah, that’s good! [grins] Thank you!
Author’s note: This was prior to the Rockies-Red Sox altercation that happened the next day.