If not for the hit-by-pitch, Tanner Houck would’ve had a perfect game through five innings.

Instead, he took a no-hit bid into the bottom of the sixth on Thursday. But even if Houck hadn’t been his usual dominant self, the Red Sox would’ve managed. They beat the White Sox 14-2 in the opener of a four-game set in Chicago.

Boston amassed 24 hits and five walks. They could’ve done even more damage; they were 9-for-22 with runners in scoring position and left 15 men on base. But scoring exactly 14 runs was brutally fitting for the White Sox, whose 14th consecutive loss sets a new franchise record. They’re 15-48 on the season and have one win in their last 19 games.

Jarren Duran started the night off with a bang, homering on the second pitch of the game for an immediate 1-0 lead. His 407-foot, 112.2 mph blast to right was his second homer in as many at-bats (he’d tripled and homered against the Braves the afternoon before). The Red Sox leadoff man finished the night 4-for-5 with the aforementioned homer, a walk, two runs scored, and a pair of RBI.

But while Duran may have led the way, he certainly wasn’t the only Boston batter who came up big in the series opener. Ceddanne Rafaela made it 3-0 with a two-RBI single in the second; like Duran, he had a four-hit game. Enmanuel Valdez clobbered a three-run homer in the fourth to double the score. Rob Refsnyder and Dom Smith tallied three hits apiece, and Tyler O’Neill, Connor Wong and David Hamilton each contributed two. Every member of the lineup, including pinch-hitter Bobby Dalbec, who replaced Rafael Devers once Boston had a sizable advantage, collected at least one hit.

But on a night when the Red Sox racked up two dozen knocks, one stood out from the pack. With one out in the top of the seventh, Jamie Westbrook stepped up to the plate to pinch-hit for O’Neill and sent a changeup 388 feet into the stands. After 11 years and over 1,000 games in the minor leagues, he’d made his Major League debut (Sunday), notched his first career hit (Wednesday), and now, his first big-league bomb.

Between their 9-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday and the first six innings in Chicago, the Boston bats plated 20 runs before their opponent answered back. Houck went seven innings and held the White Sox to two earned runs on three hits, struck out nine, and didn’t issue a walk.

In the bottom of the sixth, the White Sox saved themselves from being no-hit and shut out, but Lenyn Sosa’s leadoff single and run scored on Zach DeLoach’s double were the extent of the rally in that frame.

Chicago’s only other run was remarkable, but more so because of Houck; when Andrew Vaughn went yard, he snapped the Red Sox righty’s streak of 66.1 homer-less innings. Even so, the righty’s 1.91 ERA is the eighth-best mark by a Red Sox player through their first 13 starts of the season in the Live Ball Era. In the last century, Houck and Zack Greinke (2009) are the only Major League pitchers to record a sub-2.00 ERA, no more than two home runs, a K-to-BB ratio of at least 5-to-1 through their first 13 starts. (Greinke won the American League Cy Young that year.)

By the top of the ninth, the White Sox waved the white flag and sent infielder Danny Mendick to pitch. Hamilton and Duran each got one last single in, and Cam Booser, who took care of the last two innings, cemented a Red Sox victory that was already as set in stone as can be.