Tanner Houck continued his brilliance on the mound for the Red Sox, but unfortunately for Boston, Twins pitcher Chris Paddack outdueled the right-hander in the 5-2 loss at Target Field in Minnesota on Friday.

Houck threw 63.6% of his pitches for strikes (63-of-99 pitches) and struck out five batters in the loss.

“Excellent. He was excellent,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We needed him to go deep into the game coming from yesterday’s game, and tomorrow knowing where we’re at with the bullpen game. That’s what the good ones do. When you need innings, he goes out there, it’s not like he just gave us innings he gave us a chance to win.”

The 27-year-old gave up four runs on six hits in his third loss, and he didn’t consider it one of his better outings.

“I wouldn’t say it was my best in terms of stuff-wise,” Houck told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I felt like it was coming and going in terms of the sharpness of the pitches.”

The Red Sox had an opportunity to score first when Jarren Duran reached on a Carlos Correa fielding error, and Rafael Devers hit a double to center.

“We missed a big opportunity there. Second and third with no outs, and we didn’t score,” Cora said. “After that, we didn’t put too much together until the eighth. It’s one of those we have to keep battling and keep working and hopefully tomorrow we have a better one.”

In four road starts, Houck is 2-2 with a 2.25 ERA in 24 innings with 26 strikeouts and seven walks.