Red Sox starter Tanner Houck leaves game after being struck in face by line drive

The Boston Red Sox cruised to a 15-5 win over the rival New York Yankees in the opener of the teams’ three-game set on Friday night, but all anyone in New England was focused on after the game was the health of Boston righty Tanner Houck. Houck was forced to leave at the start of the fifth inning, when a line drive off the bat of Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka struck him in the face:

Fenway Park, previously aroar after Boston’s bats put up 13 runs over the first four innings against Yankees pitching, immediately went dead silent. Houck was on the ground for a full minute, holding a towel to what appeared to be a bloodied cheek. Thankfully, he was eventually able to walk off under his own power, and he was taken to Mass General Hospital for further evaluation. The team initially diagnosed the righty with a “facial contusion”, but they won’t have a clearer prognosis until tests come back in the next couple of days.

The fact that Houck never lost conscious and was apparently in good enough spirits to be cracking jokes is a great sign. He had pitched well before the incident, giving up just one run on four hits and a walk in four-plus innings while striking two. After a rough start to the sesaon, the 26-year-old had begun to turn things around recently, entering Friday with a 5.23 ERA and a 2.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio across his first 12 starts. He appeared to be en route to his second consecutive quality start — with both, coincidentally, coming against the Yankees.

Obviously the primary concern is Houck’s health, and we don’t know yet how much time he’ll be forced to miss, if any. But it’s also a big blow to a Red Sox rotation already dealing with more than its fair share of injuries, most notably to ace Chris Sale — who was put on the IL at the beginning of the month with shoulder inflammation. The win on Friday night got Boston back to .500 at 35-35, but that’s still only good enough for last place in the rugged AL East.