After an up-and-down regular season, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck has been a key player for the team early in the postseason.In just his second playoff outing, the rookie right-hander picked up the win in the Red Sox's 14-6 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.Houck entered the game in the bottom of the second inning after starter Chris Sale allowed five runs in the first after Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead.The 25-year-old Houck retired the first 11 Rays batters he faced before surrendering a single in the fifth inning. He allowed a solo home run in the sixth, but that's all Tampa Bay could muster against him.Houck's final stat line in his five innings pitched was two hits and one run allowed with no walks and five strikeouts.The stellar performance at Tropicana Field came after he struck out two of the three batters he faced in the AL Wild Card Game win against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park."Right now, I'm just trying to take in every second of it," Houck said before Game 2 on Friday. "We've been told, 'Hey, you only might get this once in your career, so you better embrace every second of it.' That's what I'm doing. I'm sitting here and and just having fun with every moment. I don't plan on this being my only time being in these circumstances. But I mean, I definitely am just sitting here and soaking it all in and enjoying the ride."The Red Sox originally selected Houck with the 24th overall pick in the first round of the 2017 MLB draft.He made his major league debut on Sept. 15, 2020 and made three impressive starts over the final weeks of the pandemic-shortened season. He finished with a 0.53 earned run average and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched.But for much of the 2021 season, Houck shuttled between Triple-A Worcester and Boston. He made 18 big league appearances in the regular season, including 13 starts, finishing with a 1-5 record, 3.52 ERA, 87 strikeouts and one save in 69 innings."It was, I mean, kind of what it sounds like. It's an up and down thing, and there was something new every day," Houck said. "And during those moments, a lot of people were saying, like, 'How are you not getting upset? How are you not this?' But for me, it was just enjoying the ride and understanding that there's a bigger plan for me and not getting frustrated at situations that I don't really have control of."So for me, I just really did embrace the moment I got to hang out with all the guys down in Worcester and all the guys up in Fenway, and they're all my brothers. I loved hanging out with all of them."Houck did save his best regular-season performance for last. With the Red Sox in the thick of a tight AL Wild Card race, he got the start in the second-to-last game of the year against the Washington Nationals. Houck pitched a perfect five innings and struck out eight, but he was pulled from the game after the fifth inning since he had pitched into the sixth inning just once throughout the entire season.So including his regular-season finale and the two postseason appearances, Houck became just the fifth Red Sox pitcher to retire at least 27 batters in a row within a single year since at least 1961 per the Elias Sports Bureau.Throughout all the ups and downs of his baseball journey, Houck has relied on his biggest fan and supporter — his mother, Jennifer."She used to drive me everywhere for a travel ball team. She'd come to every high school baseball game I went to. So without her, I wouldn't be here. It's truly a blessing to have her," Houck said of his mother.When it came to the constant shuttling between Worcester and Boston on the Massachusetts Turnpike, his mother had a very particular piece of advice."She knows that I'm not wanting to get too nervous in certain situations, and I'm one that's really easy going. So, I mean, her biggest advice was definitely just don't get a speeding ticket," Houck said.Houck also said that his sister, Shelby, is as big of a "baseball nut" as he and his mother are.