Chris Sale Believes Red Sox Teammate Tanner Houck Has Better Slider Than Him

Boston Red Sox pitchers Chris Sale and Tanner Houck have been compared to each other for a while now.

There’s even a popular video of the starters executing their respective sliders, with the last few frames overlaying both of their windups. Despite Sale being a lefty and eight years Houck’s senior, the pitches are eerily similar.

“No, no, no, no. My breaking ball is similar to his,” Sale told Red Sox mental skills coordinator Rey Fuentes, via MassLive’s Chris Smith, when Fuentes pointed out how close Houck’s delivery is to Sale’s.

Sale actually thinks Houck has the better slider of the tandem.

“I don’t know what the spin and axis and all the other numbers are, but I know it’s a true power pitch,” Sale said. “He throws it 6-8 mph harder than mine. Mine is more of a curveball from a lower arm slot. His is a true, hard power pitch.”

The endorsement makes sense, given that entering Houck’s start Saturday, the righty-hander posts a 3.63 ERA over 44 2/3 innings while averaging 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings compared to just 2.4 walks.

But the movement is what’s so impressive to Sale, and he said Houck’s ability to manipulate a pitch is “not common.”

“I can’t sink the ball to save my life,” Sale said, via MassLive. “I’ve got ride on my fastball. I’ve got a good enough changeup and a good slider. The thing that he has is he’s got the ride fastball that I do but he’s got a sinker that looks like a splitter.”

We’ll see how Houck uses it in the second of a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians.