Houck suffered facial fracture
Tanner Houck suffered a facial fracture when he was hit by a line drive Friday night, the Red Sox announced following Saturday evening’s rainout against the Yankees.
Houck was hit below his right eyebya Kyle Higashioka comebacker during the fifth inning of the 15-5 win. He immediately dropped to his knees as the ball trickled to
Rafael Devers at third base. Trainers came out to tend to Houck, placing a towel over his face, and Houck walked off with them down the tunnel.
“I was hoping he got a glove on it,” Higashioka said Saturday afternoon. “I wasn’t sure exactly if it squared him up, but once I was able to turn around, it definitely looked like it was pretty bad. Some of the [Red Sox] players told me during the game that he was doing all right.”
Higashioka, who was teammates with Rob Refsnyder while the latter was with the Yankees, said he reached out to the Sox outfielder to check on Houck. Seeing something like that happen shook him up some.
“We all want to compete on the field. You want to knock him out of the game by getting hits or whatever. You don’t want to see him go down with an injury. It’s just not something I enjoy seeing,” Higashioka said. “I’m glad that it wasn’t as bad as it could have possibly been.”
Garrett Whitlock, who is best friends with Houck, visited him and said he is in good spirits.
Houck’s status puts the Sox rotation in a bit of a murky situation.
James Paxton, originally scheduled to pitch Sunday night, was pushed back to Monday’s opener of a fourgame series in Minnesota against the Twins. Righthanders Kutter Crawford and Whitlock are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with Thursday to be determined.
The team announced the pitching moves, but manager Alex Cora was not made available to the media on Saturday.
Let’s play two
Heavy rains and a forecast of more throughout the evening washed out Saturday’s middle game of the weekend set with the Yankees.
The teams will instead play a split doubleheader on Sunday, with tickets for the rainout good for the 1:35 p.m. start, which will air on NESN. The previously scheduled 7:10 p.m. start will be on ESPN, the second straight “Sunday Night Baseball” to feature the rivals.
Brayan Bello, who was due to start Saturday, will pitch in the second game of the doubleheader on Sunday. His last outing came in that Sunday night victory, when he tossed seven innings, yielding just three hits and two runs in a no-decision. The Red Sox did not immediately announce a starter for Game 1. The Yankees will start Saturday’s scheduled starter Clarke Schmidt in the opener and Luis Severino in the nightcap.
Academy robbed
The Red Sox player development academy in the Dominican Republic was robbed early Saturday morning. Thieves broke into the gated complex and stole baseball equipment and other items from the facility, which is in the Santo Domingo suburb of Boca Chica.
Other major league teams have had similar incidents in recent years. No players or staff members were at the complex at the time of the crime.
Local police are investigating.
Celebrations
The Red Sox will celebrate Juneteenth before Sunday night’s game, with WWE announcer and New Bedford native Samantha Irvin
singing both “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is often referred to as the Black national anthem. The hymn was originally written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900.
The ceremonial first pitch will be thrown by Boston’s Ben Haith,
the creator of the Juneteenth flag and the founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation.
On Monday, Sox officials plan to partake in the grand opening of the Negro League Baseball Museum’s new exhibit at Emerson College, “Barrier Breakers: From Jackie to Pumpsie.” It details the story of African-American baseball players who integrated Major League Baseball, including Jackie Robinson,
who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, whose ascension to the Red Sox in 1959 made them the last team to integrate.
The free exhibit is scheduled to be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Aug. 4 at 118 Boylston Street.