He's Come A Long Way

"He" being Clay Buchholz, of course. The young righty who threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, then lost his way for awhile and struggled with confidence, especially when pitching from the stretch is continuing what he started in the second half of last season; he's maturing into the top-of-the-rotation guy Theo Epstein and the front office always believed him to be. The Red Sox are starting to see in Buchholz this year what they saw happen with Lester in '08. After tonight's win, Buch is 6-3 with a 3.07 ERA. I'll admit that I was not nearly as patient as the Sox brass were as Buch was struggling in '08, but I'm glad he's proving me wrong.

Following up his 8-inning gem against the Twins last week, Buchholz went 6 against the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays and held them to one run, a Carlos Pena blast in the fourth. He had to work out of some jams early one and his curveball and changeup weren't working too well, but he made the pitches he needed to make to induce the double play in the first and the two strikeouts in the second. Those two innings and some lengthy at-bats by the Rays drove his pitch count up and kept him from going deeper in the game, but Oki and Bard shut them down in the last three innings.

Buch's teammates had his back, giving him a 6 run lead after four innings. Papi hit a big fly in the second and Drew walked to bring home a run in the third, followed by RBI singles by Beltre and Hermida. Then, in the fourth, with Tek (who came into the game for an injured V-Mart) on, Youk went yard for the tenth time this season. Rays starter Wade Davis was chased after 3.2 innings, marking the third game in a row that the Sox bats have chased starters early (for Roy "Complete Game" Halladay, the sixth inning counts as early). Pedey came out of his slump with a 3-hit night. Let the "laser show" begin!

Tomorrow night, the Sox try to take two out of three with Lester on the hill. If Lester can continue his run of dominance and the Sox can get to James Shields, this would be huge for them. A sweep of the Rays is unlikely, but two out of three is within their reach if Lester and the bats perform to their capability. With the Yanks scuffling, now is the time for the Sox to make their move to get back in the hunt. Toronto isn't making it easy, however. They're in no hurry to cede third place to the Sox. However, only two games separate second place from fourth, so this week can make things very interesting for the three "middle teams" in the division standings.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! GREAT GAME--NOW GO OUT AND WIN TOMORROW!!!