COMMENTARY
There are no free spaces on the schedule, certainly not for a scrapper like the 2024 Red Sox. Even if Thursday’s destruction of the decrepit White Sox unfolded exactly as it would on paper — a Cy Young contender julienning a 15-47 team on a 13-game losing streak.
Tanner Houck threw exactly two pitches faster than 94 miles per hour, and he took a no-hitter into the sixth. Jarren Duran put Boston ahead two pitches in, with the first of 22 hits before UMass Lowell’s Danny Mendick’ started heaving eephus pitches in the ninth.