BALTIMORE — Tanner Houck spent spring training battling with Garrett Whitlock, Josh Winckowski and Cooper Criswell for the final two spots in the Red Sox starting rotation.

A couple of months later, Houck is competing with Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal, Orioles righty Corbin Burnes and the league’s other top pitchers for the American League Cy Young Award.

Houck, who will make his next start Friday against the Tigers at Fenway Park, has the third-best odds (+1100) to win the AL Cy Young behind Skubal (+150) and Burnes (+425), per DraftKings. Seattle’s Luis Castillo has the fourth best odds (+1200).

But the potential of winning the award isn’t something he’s thought about or made one his goals. The season is a little more than a third of the way finished.

“No. It’s still early in the season,” Houck said before Boston’s 6-1 loss to Baltimore on Wednesday. “I think we’ve got 115 games left, whatever it is.

“Only 11 starts deep. So not even on the radar. Take it day by day. Keep getting better each day. Have a quality game of catch and then show back up the next day and do it all again. And just try to repeat that as many times as you can.”

Houck (4-5)  has a 1.90 ERA (71 innings, 15 earned runs) and 0.99 WHIP in 11 starts. Opponents are batting .215 against him. He’s averaging 8.7 strikeouts and 1.6 walks per nine innings. He has given up only one home run.

“I work extremely hard at this craft,” Houck said, reflecting on where he is now compared to just a couple of months ago. “I love what I do. I try and never take this game for granted. Every opportunity that I’ve ever had, I’ve tried to not take it for granted. It’s been many hours, days, weeks, months, years of work to put it all together.”

Houck has shown glimpses of this. He went 3-0 with a 0.53 ERA (17 innings, one earned run) in three starts as a rookie in 2020. But he’s finally putting it all together with much better command than he has ever had. He’s in the 89th percentile among MLB pitchers in walk percentage (4.6%). He’s in the 94th percentile in ground ball percentage (56.1%).

“Hard work each and every day will pay off in the long run,” Houck said. “I know it’s not always the most glamorous thing to hear or do. But it is the recipe to success. Talent can only take you so far.”

The Red Sox will not face Skubal, the AL Cy Young frontrunner, in their four-game series agasint the Tigers at Fenway Park that began Thursday. Skubal pitched Wednesday and allowed three hits and one walk, striking out eight over seven scoreless innings against the Pirates.

Boston faced Burnes, who has the second-best odds, at Camden Yards on Wednesday. He held Boston to three hits and one unearned run in seven innings.

“We grinded with him,” Manager Alex Cora said. “We put pressure on him early. He’s one of the best pitchers in the big leagues. It’s 96 (mph), cutting. He used his breaking ball to get ahead against the righties. He used his slider to put ’em away. The change-up to lefties played. He is who he is. Those games, you have to grind with him. … For some young guys that we have, we put good at-bats.”

TYLER O’NEILL is not expected to be on the injured list longer than 10 days. The Red Sox placed O’Neill on the 10-day injured list Wednesday because of knee inflammation.

It was retroactive to Sunday, meaning he could return June 5 against Atlanta.

“He’s day-to-day. He should be fine,” Cora said. “Just a little inflammation. We need this guy.”

Cora added there was “no structural damage” shown on the imaging O’Neill underwent earlier this week.

O’Neill admitted he’s been dealing with soreness in his knee “for a little bit. I’ve been grinding through it for a little bit. Felt it more so on that last swing that I took, kind of coming out of the box. Feel like my cleat got caught or something in the batter’s box there. So it didn’t feel too good.”

The 28-year-old began the season with a hot bat for Boston.

O’Neill cooled off a bit in May, but was batting .236 with a .343 on-base percentage, 11 homers, six doubles, 17 RBI and 29 runs before the injury.

The Red Sox recalled Enmanuel Valdez from Worcester to replace O’Neill on the roster.

YOSHIDA UPDATE: Manager Alex Cora provided a positive update on injured designated hitter Masataka Yoshida.

“He was examined by the hand doctor. Now it’s a matter of trying to see if there’s a guard or something that can help him,” Cora said.

“And he should start swinging in the upcoming days.”

The Red Sox placed Yoshida (left thumb strain) on the 10-day injured list May 1.

Yoshida is in the second year of a five-year, $90 million contract. He was batting .275 with 11 RBI, six walks and 11 strikeouts in 24 games (89 plate appearances) before landing on the injured list.

MATA UPDATE: Righty Bryan Mata’s MRI revealed he has a lat strain. He flew to Fort Myers on Tuesday and will rehab there.

“Lat strain,” Cora said. “Kind of like (Brayan) Bello. Similar. So just go down there and hopefully we can take care of that.”

Bello missed 17 games from April 21-May 12 because of right lat rightness.

The 25-year-old Mata, who is on Boston’s 40-man roster and out of minor league options, has spent the entire season so far on the IL because of a right hamstring strain.

He made three minor league rehab outings, including one with the Portland Sea Dogs on May 23, before straining his lat.