Buchholz brilliant as Red Sox walk past Blue Jays
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 they have been paltry, 25-year old Clay Buchholz, who the team has been so patient with through the years, has pitched extraordinarily well, and who was on the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays.
His outing began auspiciously, 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. But, rather unexpectedly, this run he allowed turned moot, as Boston managed to squeeze a run out of Shawn 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 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 complimented 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 righthander refused to give in and give up runs in a situation 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 under-achieving 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 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. 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 flyout 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 giving 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 the Boston is going to go anywhere positive this season, the other three need to follow his lead and pitch like they are reputably termed.
Again, this is fools gold.
The same performance against any of the good teams that they will play in May would be a loss.
Sure he pitched a good game, but when you get a pitching performance like this, you need to support it with runs. This is a game that should have been won 4 or 5 to 1, allowing Buccholz to pitch more aggressively. That didn’t happen, and Buccholz pitched the entire game with no margin for error, and the only reason why he succeeded in doing so is because he was pitching against a lesser team.
As I said Toronto is going to be bad this season. They won a few games early, but they aren’t even a .500 team.
The same performance against a better team, with better hitting, is going to be a loss, because the game last night could have gone 18 inning and all the Red Sox would have gotten was another run, so against other teams, even with a great pitching performance, they lose, because sooner or later if you don’t give your pitcher run support, he is going to get beat, because Major League hitters have the ability to beat you at any given moment even when you make your pitch.
The most telling statistic is from the night before, when they scored 13 runs. They scored 13 runs against AA pitching, but that isn’t the point, the point is that they scored 13 runs without a home run. The Red Sox aren’t going to cobble together 6 hits to make a 4 run inning against good pitchers, and that is why instead against the Yankees, Twins and Rays all they could do is scratch 3 singles together to make a run, and that isn’t going to win you too many games, at least not in the American League.
Allot of the Red Sox fans are getting all excited over what has taken place over the last 8 games, saying the Red Sox are back, they have turned the corner and they are going to contend, and all of that.
This is the same Red Sox team that got owned by the Yankees, Twins, and Rays, it is just that they are playing lesser teams right now, and when they go back to playing better competition, like they do in May, they will go back to the same results, which will be allot of 3-2 and 4-3 losses which are lost late or in extra innings due to their inability to score, and a few of these types of games will become 8-2 loses when the opposition can get a 3 run inning against the starter and then break it open against guys like Scott Atchinson.
Also, on an unrelated note, keep your eye on Papelbon. Watching the Oriole broadcast the other night Jim Palmer was going on a great deal about how when he got beat in the playoffs he was throwing all fastballs, and how this season the Red Sox are babying him, and how after throwing one curve, he never went back to it again. Basically what he was saying without saying it was that he has a sore elbow, and was hurting at the end of last season, and his elbow is already sore, and it is only April.
Bard is ready to close, so don’t be surprised if they use Bard to push Papelbon, which seems like what they are working toward because they don’t want to pay Papelbon, and Papelbon pushes himself too hard. He has no contract for next year, and the deeper we get int other season and the better Bard preforms, the less incentive they will have to baby him along.
I remember you saying that he’s one of if not their best pitcher! How is it fools gold? Yes, Toronto will be bad, but they have a pretty solid offense.
Yeah, Boston’s offense isn’t the kind that will put together big innings. The other teams you mentioned can, and that is one of many things that differentiate the Red Sox from the rest of the contenders. Boston’s offense has too many weak spots. And when they are scuffling, they don’t have the pieces to hit and run like the Yankees, Twins, and Rays do. Ellsbury being out hurts, but even he can do so much.
I do not think they will pay Papelbon. Bard is their closer for the future. And if Boston struggles down the stretch as you think they will, I wouldn’t be surprised if they give Bard a few save chances.
As good of a game as he pitched last night, he doesn’t win that game against better competition because he has no run support.
It just isn’t realistic to expect a pitcher to hold the opposition to 1 run or less every night, and the way the Red Sox are playing 3 runs is a 50/50 proposition, and 4 runs is a lock for the other side.
The think the more Bard continues to pitch well, the more Papelbon is going to push it, and sooner or later he his going to blow out that tender elbow.
Maybe, but at least he would keep them in the game. He’s been very consistent this year, but you are right, the competition hasn’t turned stiff yet. We will see how he does against the Yankees, Tigers, Angels, and Twins this season. That will be the tell-tale sign of his rapid improvement into more than just a 4th starter.
Your missing my point, it isn’t the pitching, the pitching will be fine, the problem is the hitting.
It just isn’t realistic, or reasonable, to expect pitchers to put up performances like they have the past two nights, and give them no margin for error.
I’m not saying Clay and Lester can’t put up pitching performances like this against better teams, they can, but what they need for it to happen, is some run support.
There is a BIG difference between pitching with a 1-0 lead than pitching with a 3-0 lead. With a 3-0 lead you can attack hitters, because if you get beat, you still got a lead. With a 1-0 lead, or a tie game, you have to nibble, instead of attacking the zone, and eventually you are going to miss, and missing inside or out results in walks which will eventually kill you, and what can usually happen is that after a walk you want to make sure you catch the zone and that is where you miss middle in, and you are dead.
Again, the key number for the Red Sox, both ways, is the number 4.
If they can’t back up efforts like the staff is giving by putting up at least 3 if not 4, against better teams it will all be for naught.
Yeah, the hitting is their biggest question mark, no doubt about that. If they don’t hit, it doesn’t matter how good the pitching is. They have picked it up a bit, but games in which they score 4-5 runs are scarce.
As you touch upon, if they can manage to score 4 runs a game, they can be a very good team. But in order for even that to make a difference, Beckett needs to find himself, Dice-K (if he sticks around) will have to stop getting into so many jams, and Lester and Buchholz will have to build upon their success.
4 is the magic number, both ways, on offense and defense.
So true. But for this team, especially offensively, that is a big if.