House still searching
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Despite yet another solid outing, Picayune’s T.J. House is still in search of his first win in Major League Baseball.
In House’s fifth start for Cleveland, the Indians rallied for two unearned runs against Boston’s bullpen for a 3-2 victory on Saturday at historic Fenway Park.
House pitched 5 1/3 innings in the game. He struck out three, walked one and allowed two runs on seven hits but was gone before the Indians rallied for the win.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Brantley each had a pair of hits for Cleveland, which had lost eight of its past nine games at Fenway Park. John Axford (2-3) earned the win with one scoreless inning in relief of House.
Cody Allen pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
So far, since being recalled from Triple A Columbus to replace the injured Zach McAllister in the Indians starting rotation, the 24-year-old left-hander has made five starts, going 0-1 with a 4.88 ERA.
“He’s shown a lot of poise,” said manager Terry Francona.
After allowing a run in the first inning Saturday, House threw four scoreless innings before he was removed in the sixth inning with one out and Dustin Pedroia on second base.
“He kept us in the game,” said Francona. “I thought early in the game he was maybe a little flatter than he’s been, getting under some pitches. But then he’d get a big double play and I thought, in the third or fourth inning, he started to get on top of the ball a little more and started throwing down in the zone.
“He stayed out there and kept them off the board for the most part. I thought he did a pretty good job.”
House told reporters that he enjoyed his first start at Fenway Park.
“It was awesome,” said House. “I was having so much fun out there. Just soaking it up. I just kind of stood out there for a moment and said, “Man, this is great. I’m in 102-year old ballpark and I get to have my first start here.’
“It was fun.”
The Indians also won on Sunday, earning a split in the four game series against the defending World Champions.