The Boston Red Sox entered this season with one of, if not the best starting rotation in the major leagues.
The trio atop their pitching staff—Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey—was, on paper, deemed one of the best in baseball, possibly only second to the New York Yankees' three-headed monster of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Andy Pettitte.
But the three Red Sox aces have done little to deserve their reputation around the league, combining to go 3-3 with an abysmal 6.18 ERA in the early going, which is a big reason for Boston’s struggles.
While their performances have been paltry, 25-year-old Clay Buchholz, who the team has been so patient with through the years, has pitched extraordinarily well, and he was on the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays.
His outing began inauspiciously, as the still red-hot Vernon Wells sliced a double into left field to score Fred Lewis from second. Aside from the Red Sox performance the day before in which they scored 13 runs, a one-run hole has been tough to dig out of.
However, rather unexpectedly, this run he allowed turned moot, as Boston managed to squeeze a run out of Shaun Marcum in the top of the second inning on a two-out RBI single by Jeremy Hermida.
All was relatively quiet offensively for both teams after this. Boston couldn’t solve Marcum, as each batter who faced him was utterly perplexed by his repertoire and the movement of his pitches. Luckily for the sake of the Red Sox' anemic offense, the same went for Toronto with Buchholz. It was an old-fashioned pitchers' duel.
Both worked rather quickly, particularly Buchholz, who needed only seven pitches to retire three Blue Jays in the third. His fastball-slider combination that complemented a crisp and adequately loopy curveball befuddled Toronto, and even when the Red Sox' American League East foe did put a rally together, as in the fourth, Buchholz made sure nothing came of it.
In the fifth, two runners were one with two out once more for the Blue Jays, but the right-hander refused to give in and give up runs in a situation where Beckett would have especially struggled. Wells stranded the two that had singled, just as John Buck did in the fourth. Toronto couldn’t take advantage of enviable situations, and Buchholz made them pay.
The game remained tied at one as Marcum, by retiring the Red Sox in order in the sixth, had faced the minimum of nine batters since the third. Buchholz deserved much better from his bats, but this lineup, one that has been woefully inconsistent during their 9-11 start, could not reward him for his efforts.
Boston failed to plate J.D. Drew in the seventh after his leadoff double, going quietly in Marcum’s final inning as Darnell McDonald, who has had a flair for the dramatic this season, popped up. If the Red Sox were going to have any chance to win, Buchholz would have to continue to flourish, and they would have to hope for some kind of offensive breakthrough.
Fortunately for the underachieving team that is struggling mightily to keep pace with the Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and for that matter the Blue Jays, both hopes sprung eternal. Buchholz, with his pitch count rising, worked around a one-out walk to the Blue Jays' young and promising right fielder Travis Snider to walk off the mound having thrown seven sparkling innings.
Marcum threw seven dazzling innings as well, but he would not go out for the eighth; Scott Downs took his place. The usually reliable lefty has struggled so far this season, and his rough start to 2010 would continue, as he allowed singles to Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis with one out before walking Drew with two out. In a bases-loaded jam, he was relieved by Kevin Gregg, their excellent closer.
Gregg entered his outing with an sub-1.00 ERA, shutting down the opposition in his first year with Toronto, but though his ERA didn’t increase as he faced the sixth and seventh hitters in the Red Sox order, the run total on the scoreboard did.
Coming into such a tense situation, Gregg couldn’t find his control immediately as was necessary, missing on four straight, two sliders and two fastballs, living too far outside and low. Mike Lowell took his base, and Pedroia trotted home as the Blue Jays crowd grumbled. Buchholz now had his lead, albeit slim.
He was well over 100 pitches but took the mound in the eighth in spite of this to tango with the heart of Toronto’s lineup. The threesome of Adam Lind, Vernon Wells, and Lyle Overbay are considered their big boppers, but they didn’t look the sort against Buchholz.
After Lind was retired on the ninth pitch of his at-bat on a fly out to Hermida in left, Wells singled sharply to Adrian Beltre at third and scrambled to second base as the usually slick-fielding third baseman made a errant throw to first.
The tying run was on second, but Buchholz took no notice. Upon missing with ball one to Overbay, he fooled the slugger by going changeup-slider-fastball to record the inning’s second out. Shortstop Alex Gonzalez went quietly as well, flying out.
With that, Buchholz had capped off another masterful outing. Closer Jonathan Papelbon closed the door in the ninth to secure Boston’s second straight victory and give Buchholz, who allowed seven hits and two walks, his second win of the season.
The Red Sox were presumed to have three aces, but now they have one, a Texan whom the Red Sox have decided time and time against trading over the years, and whom leads the pitching staff in victories, ERA (at 2.19), and strikeouts (with 22). If Boston is going to go anywhere positive this season, the other three need to follow his lead.
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