The scene was set.
The Red Sox and Orioles were deadlocked at 3-3 with two runners on in the top of the fifth inning and Baltimore's Pat Valaika at the plate. Tanner Houck, the newly-minted Sox reliever, had just thrown two fastballs to the righty hitter, leading to a full count.
There was only one pitch for this occasion: Houck's slider. His best slider. So that's exactly what he threw.
The feelings that came with the pitch and the moment weren't lost on Houck.
"Whenever you see the bowlers spin the ball and it is right on the gutter and all of a sudden it just darts back, that’s kind of cool. That’s kind of like watching the slider," he told WEEI.com. "‘Oh no, it’s going to hit him!’ Then, voom! That is sick."
The pitcher who represents one of the Red Sox' greatest success 2021 stories has a highlight within the highlight. That would be discovering the pitch that has allowed for all of those social media gasps and attaboys.
And much like the pitch itself, the evolution of the Houck slider is somewhat amazing, with the tale taking an unexpected turn just about a month ago.
The story starts on a back field at JetBlue Park during the Red Sox' 2019 spring training.
Prior to that season, the Red Sox' first-round pick in the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft was utilizing a "spike" grip when throwing his breaking ball, delivering something between a curveball and a slider. Then current Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush approached him with an idea.
"Bushy came in and he said, ‘We want you to throw a slider, but this way.’ So he showed me the grip and it felt comfortable right away, so I was like, ‘OK, I will give it a try,’" Houck explained. "I had a bullpen that day and the moment I threw it I was like, ‘That just feels right.’ They were like, ‘If you don’t feel comfortable with it, don’t throw it.’ But I felt comfortable with it and the rest is history.
"If you look at the bottom of the horseshoe on a baseball, my middle finger and my index finger, the two creases, the last creases on your finger, I put on the seams facing down towards the horseshoe."
Slowly, the pitch became a weapon for the pitcher.
Talks with both Adam Ottavino and Chris Sale continued to educate Houck in the ways of throwing the pitch, helping complement the increasing confidence that came with on-field success.
Then something happened in August that started to truly define the pitch.
Houck realized he could make his slider do different things with just the smallest adjustment.
"It’s been one of those pitches now where I can adjust the grip just a little bit and get more of a side to side, or if I tweak it a little bit I can get more North to South," he said. "It has been super beneficial to have those markers of just the creases on my finger, to be able to say, ‘OK, when I hold it like this I will be able to get more tilt, more downward action. If I get more seam, I can create more East to West.’ I have only been doing that for about a month now, where I have been going back and forth.
"Before I would have the in between grip where it felt comfortable and make it too sweepy sometimes. So I just realized if I’m grabbing a little more seam here I can create more spin. It was just like a happy accident. Just gripping it one way in the bullpen and feeling like, ‘OK, by doing that it felt better.’ Then was like, ‘OK, what if I tilt it the other way.’ All of a sudden I created more depth despite throwing it the exact same way. I could see it right away and I could feel it right away. There was a cause and effect.
"Even when throwing the same pitch, you can throw it different ways. Everyone does it either on purpose or by accident whether they want to or not. It’s who we are as humans. We aren’t throwing it the exact same way. For me, it was just realizing that when I do it this way I can create more side to side.
"Now I definitely do it with a purpose. There is more of a plan. I realize that if I do it I can manipulate it, so why not do it."
And so he has.
Houck is throwing the slider 35 percent of the time, with opponents managing just a .179 batting average. The righty has also totaled a whopping 32 strikeouts on the 67 at-bats he has punctuated with the pitch.
As for how the advanced analytics might be measuring his slider, interesting enough, Houck said he will save that information for another day.
"I try not to look at any of that stuff during the season," he said. "It’s a slippery slope and it can get out of hand too quickly. I just want to go out there and compete with my stuff and be a bulldog. I can’t think I didn’t pitch well because my axis was off by .5. I think you can definitely get too far into it, so I stay away from it. The most I do is video if I’m feeling right or feeling off with my delivery. That’s pretty much it. I try not to look at the numbers."
For now, it's all about the feels for Houck. And to this point, that has worked out just fine.
"I love throwing my fastball more than anything. That’s who I have always been, the guy who throws 70 percent fastballs," Houck said. "But I love throwing my slider, too. It’s one of those pitches where every time I get it called I’m like, ‘Here we go! This is my baby.’ The splitter has turned into that pitch, as well. This year, growing that pitch, it has been awesome to see. I have worked so hard to get that pitch down. Now having the slider and the splitter be that much more effective, it’s cool. My hard work finally showed up."