Red Sox Beat Guardians in MLB's Quickest Nine-Inning Game in Over a Decade

Apr 17, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Houck (89) pitches to the Cleveland Guardians.
Apr 17, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Houck (89) pitches to the Cleveland Guardians. / Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 2–0 on Wednesday night in the quickest MLB game since 2010.

The game, also the fastest since the establishment of the pitch clock, lasted just one hour and 49 minutes as Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck threw 94 pitches in a shutout. It was the first shutout of his career, and the first complete game thrown by a Red Sox pitcher since May 2022. Houck threw nine strikeouts and allowed just three hits.

The last time an MLB game was played this quickly was on June 2, 2010, when Cleveland lost to the Detroit Tigers in one hour and 44 minutes, according to MLB's Sarah Langs.

Second baseman Pablo Reyes scored the Red Sox's first run of the evening in the third inning after getting on base with a single and eventually coming home on a balk. Catcher Connor Wong then hit a 366-foot solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend Boston's lead.

The Red Sox improved to 10–9 on the season with the victory, while the Guardians fell to 12–6.


Published
Madison Williams

MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.