Tanner Houck set to resume throwing on Tuesday as he recovers from facial fracture
BOSTON -- It has been a little less than a month since Tanner Houck took a comebacker off his face in a start against the Yankees. The Red Sox righty considers himself lucky that he only suffered a facial fracture in the scary incident, but it did require surgery to put a metal plate inside his right cheek.
Houck will resume throwing on Tuesday, which will represent the two-week mark since his surgery.
"Things are going good," Houck told WBZ-TV's Dan Roche over the weekend. "Right now it's just a waiting period; waiting for the swelling to go down and waiting for that two-week mark to start throwing. Things have been going great."
Taking the mound again will be a big step for Houck, who was cruising against the Yankees when he was struck by a liner off the bat of New York catcher Kyle Higashioka. He's been eager to pick up a baseball again, but most of the recovery process has required a lot of patience.
"A lot of being patient and understanding that this is going to take a little bit of time to heal itself. The doctors did an incredible job, but understanding that the body has to heal and that takes time," said Houck. "It's been a long process. It's only been about three weeks since the incident but it has felt a lot longer than that, for sure."
While he now has a plate in his face, Houck still considers himself fortunate to be close to a return to the mound.
"To say three weeks ago I got hit in the face and sitting here today, perfectly normal, it's incredible," he told Roche.
Houck is just 3-6 on the season with a 5.05 ERA, but gave up three runs or less in three of those defeats. He'll be a welcome addition back into the Boston rotation, which has relied on an "opener" since Houck's injury.
