Red Sox fans, spin the wheel of glee.
Your team beat the Yankees (again), this time needing 10 innings and a walk-off sacrifice fly from Hunter Renfroe to seal a 5-4 win in the wee hours of Thursday night.
That would now be a Major League-best 30 come-from-behind wins, with the Red Sox now carrying an 8-2 record against the New Yorkers. It also put Alex Cora's team at 14-6 since what has become a raucous Fenway Park went to full capacity.
There were Alex Verdugo's three hits. The Red Sox ability to capitalize on Brooks Kriske's four wild pitches in the fateful 10th. And, of course, Kiké Hernandez's clutch, two-out, two-run double in the ninth to force those extra innings.
But these days, it's all about the big picture of what is now the final 65 games of the regular season. It's why Tampa Bay's third straight win wasn't its biggest story. That would have belonged to the Rays acquisition of slugger Nelson Cruz.
It's also the reason for the need to focus on Tanner Houck.
At at time the contending teams are jockeying for position in regard to finding home-stretch difference-makers, the Red Sox have seemingly uncovered a pretty important one. That would be Houck.
While a rain delay limited the outing by the rookie righty to 4 2/3 innings, what we saw over the course of those 87 pitches was enough. Eight of Houck's 14 outs came via the strikeout, including six of his first nine.
Since his return to the big leagues, this is a guy who has pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up just one run while fanning 11. And as a major-leaguer, Houck's ERA stands at 1.54 ERA, striking out 44 over 35 innings.
This hasn't been just getting by. This has been downright semi-dominance.
“In terms of how I felt, I felt pretty good going into the game," Houck said. "Early on in the bullpen, I kind of questioned my fastball command a little bit. But I knew right away the slider was feeling right on point. Part of it. You’re not going to wake up every day and feel your best with everything, so went out there and competed with what I had, and I’m pretty happy with it. In terms of the rain delay, it’s part of it. Can’t control Mother Nature by any means. Wish I could have finished the inning, but I knew the team had to do what they had to do. They felt that they had to take me out at that time, and I agree with them. It was a decently lengthed rain delay, and glad to hand the ball off to the guys in the pen. They’re a superb team out there, and I knew they could get the job done."
There is the mid-90's fastball. The slider that has resulted in just two-hits all season. And now a split-finger pitch he dabbles in here and there to keep left-handed hitters honest.
The Rays might have gotten their big bat. But this arm the Red Sox have landed with is a pretty good counter.
"Outstanding," Cora said of Houck. "Just the rain delay killed us right there. We had to go to J.T. (Josh Taylor) early, but good stuff, he made some good pitches. Even when he was behind in the count, the 2-0 slider to Gardner that he swung and missed and I think the ball hit him, I guess, he made some good hitters look bad. The stuff, the fastball up, the sinker, the slider were on point. He threw a few splitters. He was good. He was good."