Red Sox starter Tanner Houck struggled again in his second rehab start for Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old — who has been on the 15-day injured list since May 14 with a right flexor pronator strain — recorded just five outs. He gave up four runs (all earned), three hits and two walks while striking out two at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He also hit a batter.
All four runs came in the second inning after a perfect first inning. All three hits were singles.
He threw just 26 of his 49 pitches (53.1%) for strikes.
He went to his sweeper 27 times. All five swings and misses he got came on the sweeper but all three hits also came on the pitch.
He added 15 sinkers (95.5 mph max, 94.3 mph average), six splitters and one four-seam fastball (93.2 mph), per Baseball Savant.
In his first rehab start June 18, Houck allowed one run on two hits and one walk in 1-plus innings against Buffalo.
He has acknowledged he has dealt with arm issues since spring training and it affected him in April and May when he posted an 8.04 ERA (43 ⅔ innings, 39 earned runs) in nine starts.
