In his last start before his first career All-Star Game, Tanner Houck looked the part, shutting the Oakland A’s out for six innings in a 7-0 Red Sox victory for the series win.

Thursday night was the right-hander’s second time blanking the A’s for six this year, though he thought his outing could’ve been cleaner; he struck out seven and only gave up two hits, but issued three walks, including to leadoff man JJ Bleday in the first.

“All in all, pretty decent outing. Too many walks, too many long counts where I fell behind,” Houck said. “But ultimately battled back, made the pitches when I needed to, and satisfied with the outing.”

When the Sox starter opened the sixth by allowing a single to Max Schuemann and issued a two-out walk to Brent Rooker, Alex Cora came out for a visit. Houck thought he was getting the hook. Instead, after a brief chat, his manager walked back to the dugout alone.

“He’s our guy, and obviously, lefty at the plate, but you got to trust him,” Cora said. “He was very convincing, to say the least. I said, ‘What you got?’ He’s like, ‘I got it.’ That was it.”

The righty worked around a wild pitch putting the runners in scoring position, and induced an inning-ended groundout from Lawrence Butler.

“I knew I still had more in the tank, and just super thankful for the opportunity to stay out there and get that last guy,” Houck said. “Lil’ dicey on the first two pitches there, but once again, battled back and made the pitches when I had to.”

“I usually make my decision from the dugout, but I wasn’t ready to take him out of the game,” the Sox skipper continued. “He deserves that. I think he’s done an amazing job throughout the first part of the season, and there’s gonna be situations like that starting next week, and we need him, so that was really good.”

All told, Houck threw 103 pitches (64 strikes). His 14th quality start of the season is tied for fourth-most in the Majors, he’s fifth in ERA (2.54), and sixth in innings pitched (117). Entering the game, his fWAR was tied for fourth among MLB pitchers.

“I’m super stoked with the consistency I’ve had in the first half,” Houck said. “It’s not done, though. You can look back and easily be satisfied with it, but I want more. I want to continue to go deeper into games, continue to go out there with my best stuff every night, just ultimately put the team in the best position to win.”

“The workload to this point in time, and what he’s done for us, has been tremendous. He’s 100% deserving of every nod he gets, starting with the All-Star Game,” pitching coach Andrew Bailey told the Herald before the game. “He’s prepared for this for a long time.”

The Boston bats, meanwhile, sent the A’s on their way in loud, decisive fashion. Both teams racked up double-digit punch-outs – the home team struck out 13 times, their guests 11 – but the Sox knocked Luis Medina and the A’s bullpen around to the tune of 10 hits, including home runs by Wilyer Abreu, Connor Wong and Masataka Yoshida.

Yoshida and Abreu led the way, each going 3-for-4 with a run; Yoshida drove in a season-high four RBI, Abreu two. He got the scoring started with a line-drive single, which brought Jarren Duran (walk) and David Hamilton (double) home for a 2-0 lead in the first. Abreu followed suit, driving in the third run of the inning before Medina was able to strand the most productive Red Sox hitters of the contest.

When the A’s swapped Medina out for Kyle Muller in the sixth, Yoshida greeted the reliever with a two-run homer. The Red Sox wouldn’t score again, but his two-out single in the eighth snapped a streak of five consecutive strikeouts by Muller and Michel Otañez. Over his last 14 games dating back to June 24, Yoshida is hitting .346 with a .923 OPS, three doubles, two home runs, 12 RBI, five runs, and three walks.

“The hitter that we envision,” Cora said.

After what his manager described as “grinding the last few days,” Wong matched a season-high three runs scored, something he last achieved on June 6. After drawing a walk to load the bases in the first, he blasted a solo homer in the third; at 420 feet his eighth round-tripper of the year easily cleared the Green Monster.

“That’s always kind of the sign that you’re about to get out of your slump, and then he crushed that one,” the manager said of the walk. “That was good to see.”

With a 7-0 lead, Cora let Chase Anderson pitch the rest of the way, and the veteran’s three scoreless innings preserved the rest of the bullpen for this weekend’s three-game set with the incoming 51-43 Kansas City Royals. The Sox skipper took the opportunity to give Rafael Devers (0-for-3, two strikeouts looking) additional rest, and sent Romy Gonzalez to pinch-hit in the eighth.

This weekend’s three-game set with the Royals is all that stands between Boston and the All-Star break, second half of the season, trade deadline, and potentially, postseason baseball. The Red Sox are 51-41, including 8-2 in their last 10 games, and an MLB-best 29-17 dating back to May 19. They’ve only lost one of their 12 series since May 30, and own a three-series winning streak. Thursday was their 10th shutout win of the season, the most in the American League; they only had five such victories last year.

Most importantly, as Cora said earlier this week, if the season ended today, they’d be playing tomorrow. Not only do the Red Sox hold the third American League Wild Card, they’re also just five and a half games out of first in their division.

Houck debuted late in the shortened 2020 season, which already makes him one of the club’s longest-tenured players. He’s already been through three last-place finishes and an unexpectedly-deep Wild Card-to-ALCS run in 2021, and he feels this Red Sox team is special.

“I’ve said it all year, it’s a fun team,” he said. “It’s just a fun team to be around, I think that’s the biggest thing for me. Everyone shows up and, smile on their face, good energy every day. And I think that’s something that we haven’t lacked in years’ past, but I think you can really see it with this group.”

Red Sox starter Tanner Houck pitches against the Oakland A’s during the first inning Thursday at Fenway Park. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox celebrates his two-run homer during the sixth inning. Boston blanked the A’s, 7-0, at Fenway Park. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)