Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora doesn't know yet whether pitcher Tanner Houck will need surgery for a facial fracture he suffered when he was hit below the right eye by a line drive from the New York Yankees' Kyle Higashioka on Friday. «He's going to see the doctor at the end of the week, and then we'll go from there.
I don't know if surgery is needed or not,» Cora said Sunday morning before Boston faced New York in the opener of a split doubleheader.
Higashioka led off the fifth inning and lined Houck's 92 mph sinker straight up the middle, hitting the 26-year-old right-hander.
Houck received stitches and was checked at a hospital after he walked off the mound on his own with a towel covering his face. «As I'm running down the line, I hoped he got at least something on it before it hit him,» Higashioka said Saturday. «It's just not something you want to see.