Tanner Houck lost. Ryan Brasier cost the Red Sox again, and bad managing (will) hurt the Red Sox.

Tanner Houck (Photo from MLB.com Video: https://www.mlb.com/gameday/blue-jays-vs-red-sox/2022/04/21/663225#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=663225)

The Boston Red Sox lost 3-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tanner Houck, Boston's starting pitcher on Thursday, ended up pitching just five innings and taking the loss (and he deserved to take the loss) as the Red Sox's offense could not find a way to tack on at least four runs for the fourth straight game.

In fact, the Red Sox have only lost twice this regular season when they have scored at least four runs in seven games (if you count Friday night's win in which the Red Sox won 4-3 at the Tampa Bay Rays, make that eight games).

According to the box score, Houck was almost perfect in every other inning except the top of the third inning on Thursday.

The box score read that he gave up one walk, three hits and two runs and two earned runs.

Houck did all of those things in the third inning, except he only gave up two hits (and not three). He gave up a double to Matt Chapman in the second inning.

He also had four strikeouts and three of the first four outs of the game by Houck were strikeouts.

Ultimately Houck has to take the most blame for the loss, but should he really?

He only threw 47 strikes in 71 pitches (.662). That was by far his best start (in terms of throwing strikes) of the regular season.

Something tells me acting manager Will Venable (because manager Alex Cora is likely out for the entire Tampa Bay series because of COVID-19) took Houck out of the game too soon.

Maybe Venable really didn't want to take out Houck after just five innings and Houck making eight straight outs to end his day.

But, before the game Alex Cora probably told Venable to take Houck out after so many innings pitched or so many pitches.

Venable probably deserves the most blame for the Red Sox loss.

But it is hard to say that because Tanner Houck is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and the Red Sox had a plan before his Thursday start to pitch him (in relief) on Sunday.

So Houck was on a pitches and an innings limit on Thursday because he won't be available for four games (Monday through Thursday) in Toronto.

Some people will say that Tanner Houck deserves to get blamed for Thursday's loss just because he is not COVID-19 vaccinated, and I completely disagree with that. I don't think he should get blamed one bit because of his decision to not receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

It is obvious to me that Houck is going to throw at least two innings on Sunday. Maybe he will pitch more than that, but the plan seems to be that they probably want Houck to throw somewhere in the ballpark of 30 to 75 pitches on Sunday.

I really do think the goal is for Houck to throw no more than like 50 pitches on Sunday.

So should Houck take the most blame for the loss? Yes and No.

Yes, because he gave up the most runs among Red Sox pitchers, but no because the Red Sox offense did not show up (until the bottom of the ninth) and the Red Sox probably should not have put a leash on Houck at all for how many pitches or innings pitched he could throw.

So it costed the Red Sox a win.

Also, if we are being honest, Houck probably could have pitched at least six or seven innings with how well he was pitching before he got removed from the game.

But sometimes not taking a pitcher out of a game too soon just invites more trouble and that's what the Red Sox management decided to avoid.

It almost worked on Thursday, but it didn't.

The question will be whether it will work for any games after Thursday until at least after next Thursday's game in Toronto.

As I already told you the Red Sox won on Friday night (yesterday), so it is working so far.

Ryan Brasier came into the game in the sixth inning and allowed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to score the game's winning run. I don't know what other people think, but I don't understand the thought process of the Red Sox.

The Red Sox brought in their worst reliever named Ryan Brasier to come in and pitch without a lead (the Red Sox were trailing 2-0) and to do it in the sixth inning.

The management of the Red Sox's thinking makes sense from a non-pressure inning situation standpoint (in that you want Brasier to pitch as early in the game as possible) but it doesn't make sense that you would have him face the numbers two and three hitters in the Blue Jays lineup on Thursday in Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the first two batters of the inning. It makes no sense!

The only other thing that makes sense is to have Brasier face Bichette and Guerrero Jr. so that he would not have to face Matt Champman who had the only extra-base hit of the game (for either team) at that point.

Brasier and Austin Davis were the only relief pitchers on the Red Sox to not pitch the last three games before Thursday (Monday through Wednesday). So the Red Sox plan obviously was the have both of them pitch on Thursday (and they did).

Hirokazu Sawamura also seemed to be a relief pitcher who was "scheduled" to pitch on Thursday too. He was the only Red Sox relief pitcher (other than Kutter Crawford and the other aforementioned names) who did not pitch on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It seems obvious that Crawford is going to pitch on Saturday or Sunday or both days, so I guess we will see what happens since he hasn't pitched since Monday. It seems like he has to be back pitching soon.

Ryan Brasier is the worst pitcher on the Boston Red Sox right now. His 4.50 ERA is incredibly deceiving (and should be much higher than it actually is) because his very true run average and true run average is 11.25.

Kutter Crawford's 15.75 ERA and very true run average (14.63) and true run average (15.75) is actually the worst on the Red Sox right now.

But Brasier has just a .134 winning percentage and a .172 success rate/performance percentage, which absolutely makes him the worst pitcher on the Red Sox right now.

Brasier's actual losses (and potential losses) this regular season are the second worst on the team. Only Nick PIvetta is worse.

Austin Davis, Hirokazu Sawamura and Phillips Valdez also pitched on Thursday, but none of them gave up any runs or partial runs.

Davis was taken out of the game after the first hint of trouble, Sawamura had at least one runner on-base in multiple innings and Valdez was perfect in the top of the ninth.

Based on Friday's game, Brasier likely will pitch on Saturday at some point (as he has pitched two out of every three games).

Davis likely won't pitch on Saturday, Sawamura could but probably won't as he hasn't pitched in two out of three games all regular season so far, and I would say Valdez could pitch if he absolutely has to on Saturday, but probably won't pitch.

I also find it interesting how Garrett Whitlock did not pitch in relief on Wednesday or Thursday.

The Red Sox must have wanted to give Whitlock plenty of rest for his start today (Saturday).

He probably could have pitched on Wednesday or Thursday but his ankle or knee must not have felt good after the second out of the top of the ninth of Tuesday's Red Sox win.

NOTE: Very true run average and run average include all runs scored. So they are not like earned runs. Very true run average is more accurate than true run average because it doesn't blame a pitcher for allowing a baserunner to start on second base in extra innings. True run average blames the pitcher for allowing a baserunner to start on second base to start extra innings. Other than that, very true run average and true run average are more accurate and truthful than earned run average (earned runs) and run average (runs).

FINAL NOTE: All statistics in this story are from after the April 21st, 2022 game and before the April 22nd, 2022 game (unless otherwise noted). This story was posted on Saturday, April 23rd.

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Actual won-lost records in the 2022 regular season for Boston Red Sox pitchers depending on the Boston Red Sox win/loss result for any one specific game

NEW: The "wins" are all games that the Boston Red Sox actually won. The "wins" are percentages of innings pitched for each pitcher. All of the percentages of innings pitched (of games the Red Sox actually won) are then added together to get "wins", which is what you see below. The "losses" can be thought of as the percentage of runs any one pitcher allowed the opposing team to score. These percentages of how many runs a pitcher allows in any one game to score are then added together for every game (and only of the games that the Red Sox actually lost) to get "losses". Pitchers who start any extra inning are blamed for allowing a baserunner to start the inning at second base (and any other additional bases they allow that baserunner to advance) if that baserunner eventually scores. The winning percentage is wins divided by wins plus losses.

Matt Barnes .111 wins and .417 losses (.211 win pct.)

Ryan Brasier .148 wins and .958 losses (.134 win pct.)

Kutter Crawford .259 wins and .635 losses (.290 win pct.)

Tyler Danish 0 wins and 0 losses (Not applicable. Hasn't been in a game yet the Boston Red Sox actually won and he also hasn't given up any runs yet at all. So technically that means he's a winner. 1.000 win pct.)

Austin Davis .185 wins and .083 losses (.690 win pct.)

Jake Diekman .333 wins and .125 losses (.727 win pct.)

Nathan Eovaldi 1.074 wins and .500 losses (.682 win pct.)

Rich Hill .481 wins and .500 losses (.491 win pct.)

Tanner Houck 1.000 wins and 0.667 losses (.600 win pct.)

Nick Pivetta 0.000 wins and 2.333 losses (.000 win pct.)

Hansel Robles .444 wins and 0.000 losses (1.000 win pct.)

Hirokazu Sawamura .074 wins and .281 losses (.208 win pct.)

Matt Strahm .519 wins and 0.000 losses (1.000 win pct.)

Phillips Valdez 0 wins and 0 losses (Not applicable. Hasn't been in a game yet the Boston Red Sox actually won and he also hasn't given up any runs yet at all. So technically that means he's a winner. 1.000 win pct.)

Michael Wacha .556 wins and .333 losses (.625 win pct.)

Garrett Whitlock .815 wins and .167 losses (.830 win pct.)

...

Actual won-lost records in the 2022 regular season for Boston Red Sox pitchers not depending on whether the Boston Red Sox actually win any one specific game or not.

In other words, this tells the complete picture of their entire regular season (the good and the bad) of how many people the pitcher got out (innings pitched) and how many runs the pitcher truthfully gave up (which is more accurate than runs or even earned runs given up). So to make this more easy for people to understand, starting pitchers don't 100% get blamed for the inherited runners that the reliever(s) allow to score. The starter will get 25%, 50% or 75% blame for giving up one run instead, for an inherited runner that eventually scores.

Also, a pitcher can get a partial win and a partial loss in the same game. So pitchers that throw more innings pitched are going to get a higher percentage of partial wins and pitchers who give up more runs are going to get a higher percentage of partial losses. So if one pitcher pitches a complete game he will get one win (regardless of the team's win/loss result) and if the pitcher's team actually loses that same game in which he was the only pitcher who pitched for his team, he will also get credit for one loss.

The only time any pitcher cannot take a loss or a partial loss is if the winning team doesn't give up any runs to the team they are playing.

Basically, this is truly giving credit where credit is due among pitchers only.

NEW: The "wins" are percentages of innings pitched for each game for each pitcher. All of the percentages of each game are then added together and the sum total of all percentages for each game are "wins" (whether the Red Sox actually won that specific game or not) and are what you see below. The "losses" can be thought of as the percentage of runs that any one pitcher allowed the opposing team to score for each game. All of the percentages of runs given up for each game are then added together and the sum total of all of those numbers are the "losses" and what you see below. The "losses" presented here are represented as the total number of potential losses that a pitcher could have if the Red Sox actually lost every single game in which a pitcher gave up a run(s). The winning percentage is wins divided by wins plus losses.

Matt Barnes .458 wins and .417 losses (.524 win pct.) 4 innings pitched

Ryan Brasier .442 wins and 2.125 losses (.172 win pct.) 4 innings pitched

Kutter Crawford .574 wins and .957 losses (.317 win pct.) 2 1/3 innings pitched

Tyler Danish .222 wins and 0.000 losses (1.000 win pct.) 2 innings pitched

Austin Davis .574 wins and .369 losses (.609 win pct.) 5 innings pitched

Jake Diekman .367 wins and .232 losses (.612 win pct.) 3 1/3 innings pitched

Nathan Eovaldi 1.574 wins and 1.786 losses (.469 win pct.) 14 2/3 innings pitched

Rich Hill 1.000 wins and 1.500 losses (.400 win pct.) 4 1/3 innings pitched

Tanner Houck 1.556 wins and 1.250 losses (.554 win pct.) 14 innings pitched

Nick Pivetta 1.375 wins and 2.333 losses (.371 win pct.) 11 2/3 innings pitched

Hansel Robles .544 wins and .000 losses (1.000 win pct.) 5 innings pitched

Hirokazu Sawamura .718 wins and .281 losses (.718 win pct.) 6 1/3 innings pitched

Matt Strahm .669 wins and 0.250 losses (.728 win pct.) 6 innings pitched

Phillips Valdez .912 wins and 0.000 losses (1.000 win pct.) 8 innings pitched

Michael Wacha 1.097 wins and .333 losses (.767 win pct.) 9 1/3 innings pitched

Garrett Whitlock 1.048 wins and .167 losses (.863 win pct.) 9 2/3 innings pitched

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Wins, Losses, Holds, Blown Saves and Saves that everybody understands

Matt Barnes

Ryan Brasier Hold 1, Blown Saves 1

Kutter Crawford 1-1

Austin Davis 0-1

Jake Diekman Holds 4 Saves 1

Nathan Eovaldi 1-0

Rich Hill

Tanner Houck 1-1

Nick Pivetta 0-3

Hansel Robles 1-0 Holds 1 Saves 1

Hirokazu Sawamura

Matt Strahm 1-0 Holds 1

Phillips Valdez

Michael Wacha

Garrett Whitlock 1-0 Blown Saves 1 Saves 1