Buchholz Beats Yanks

So far this season, Clay Buchholz has pitched just a'ight for me dog. Moments of efficiency have been overshadowed by notable lapses. The 4.00+ ERA and the 1.500+ WHIP have been nothing to write home about. But last night in an important game for the Sox against the Yankees, Buchholz went 7 innings for the first time allowing two runs along the way. Buchholz showed great control and made only one big mistake, a two run homer to Russell Martin.

Though Buchholz left with a 5-2 lead, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon tried their best to give the game away. Bard was all over the place. He looked like Daniel Osterbrock from the AA New Britain Rockcats game I went to on Thursday. Papelbon uneventfully retired the first two batters he faced then allowed hits to Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson, which closed the game to within a run.

The Sox need Clay to have more games like this especially with the back end of the rotation floundering. Dice-K is Dice-K, Wakefield is too old, and who knows what to make of John Lackey. Lackey's wife's battle with breast cancer was recently revealed. Who can blame the guy for pitching poorly? Far be it for me to suggest how person should deal with a major illness in his family, but Lackey seems totally miserable. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a leave of absence soon.

Buchholz Is Lights Out Again

As I write, Clay Buchholz is helping the Sox school the Angels yet again with six shutout innings. In what will likely end up as a disappointing season for the Sox, Buchholz has been a major bright spot. Not including the present game he is 2-0 with a 1.61 ERA in his first three starts of August. On the season he is 13-5 and has an AL best 2.49 ERA. (By the way, this drives me crazy every time I look at pitching stats. This: 7.1, does not mean seven and one third. It means seven and one tenth. It should look like this: 7 1/3. I know it's not easy to represent 7 1/3 with a decimal since 1/3 is a repeating non-terminating decimal, but 7.1 is not correct.)

I'm pleased to see Buchholz develop and flourish in his first full season in the majors. He seemed to hit a snag after his no hitter in 2007. But now in my mind he has leap frogged Josh Beckett and joined Jon Lester as one of the Sox top two starters. Hopefully this a clear sign that the Sox will have excellent starting pitching for years to come.

A short football digression: I am selling the Jets right now. I just want go on record as saying that New York football's second class citizens will win not more than 10 games. If the sports media is high on your team, especially in the NFL, run for the hills. Also if Brett Favre comes back I'm setting the over/under on ints this year at 18.5. Which one are you taking?

Pedroia Out for Six Weeks

Just as the Sox start playing well and put themselves in a position to increase their lead on the Rays with the mini series that starts tonight, Dustin Pedroia breaks his foot. Make no mistake about it, this is not good. I can see the Sox rallying around this injury and doing well in the next couple of weeks, but six weeks without their catalyst is going to be tough to weather.

At least Clay Buchholz and Victor Martinez won't be out long. Martinez is on the 15-day DL, while Buchholz was scheduled to miss his next start anyway.

Sox Sweep Jays

It took some doing, but the Sox took three of three from Toronto in their building. Last night was the crowning achievement as struggling starter Jon Lester had a masterful performance striking out 11 on his way to seven shutout innings and a 2-0 win. Clay Buchholtz wasn't too shabby himself on Wednesday also going seven and allowing just one run.

Mike Lowell again played the hero two nights ago with the winning RBI on a bases loaded walk. He was pinch hitting for David Ortiz, which would have been a surprise move three years ago, but no more. Francona clearly has more confidence in Lowell right now and for good reason. Lowell seems very comfortable at the plate and content to contribute anyway he can whether it be as a pinch hitter or DH.

These wins were more like what the Red Sox Brass envisioned in spring training. The starter goes seven and renders the opponent's bats useless. The bullpen comes in and holds the lead (uneventfully). And the offense does just enough to win.

State of the Rotation: The 5th Starters

We come to the end of the rotations, and being that both teams have so many candidates I figured I would take the extra time to include the extra pitchers for each team.

The Yankees have the most candidates to fill out the final spot in their rotation. The group includes top candidates Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Al Aceves. Normally Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin would be included in this list as well, but the reality is they never really had a chance unless Joba and Hughes were hurt or completely inept. The Yankees simply have too much invested in Joba and Hughes to not have one of them in the rotation.

If the Yankees were to simply go by the performance of the top three candidates, this race would go to Hughes or possibly Aceves based on his early spring dominance. It seems though, that Chamberlain will end up with the job after his recent revival. Plus the Yankees didn't go through all of the trouble of expanding his innings total to the point where he could pitch an entire season uninhibited just to throw him back in the bullpen now. They owe it to the Joba Rules to see the process out to the end.

That being said, Chamberlain in the rotation wont be as bad as many think it would. Last year showed that until the Yankees handcuffed their young righty with ridiculous pitch counts he was more than adequate. Chamberlain reached his career high of 110 innings after eight shut out innings against the Rays, the Yanks went about skipping his turn and limiting his pitches. That severely curtailed his performance. I think that if he is left alone his performance will greatly improve.

The Red Sox on the other hand have fewer candidates for their fifth spot than a year ago. That season it seemed that the Sox were signing every rehab veteran around with the hope that one would return to form. In the cases of Brad Penny and John Smotlz the results were far from favorable. However there was a bright spot when Clay Buchholz was able to stabilize the last spot over the final two and a half months of the season.

The young righty will be coming into this season as a main contender for the fifth spot. He and Tim Wakefield will both start the season in the rotation until Daisuke Matsuzaka is ready to take a rotation slot. After that one will probably be shifted to the bullpen and, as long as Buchholz doesn't choke in his first few starts, that one will probably be Wakefield since it will be much easier for the knuckleballer to adjust back and forth between the pen and the rotation.

If you had to compare the overall pool of fifth starter candidates from both teams, I would give the nod to the Yankees for having more talent, but if you were to go by which two starters are most likely to get those jobs, I would go with Buchholz over Joba. They have both had their ups and downs over their short careers, but Buchholz was more consistently effective over the final two months of the season which is a lot longer than any stretch Joba has had in his major league starting career.

I'll give this one and the rotation battle to the Red Sox, 3-2.

Buchholz Pitches Well, But Not Well Enough

Clay Buchholtz went 6 and only allowed 2 runs, but the Sox bats remained ice cold as Boston was shutout for a second straight night. They've now gone 24 consecutive innings without scoring a run. I give all due credit to C.C. Sabathia, who had everything working for him last night. The fast ball topped out at 98 and the slider looked filthy. He went 5 innings before allowing a base runner and 6 before allowing a hit. The Sox hitters looked totally lost. Hopefully Jon Lester will be able put a tourniquet on this hemorrhage tonight. But as we've learned, the Sox have become quite good at wasting good pitching performances.

On another note, the ejection of Ramon Ramirez was completely uncalled for. Hitting A-Rod in the 7th was clearly accidental. Why would he intentionally throw at a batter in the late innings of a 2-0 game with a runner on base? I know Yankees/Red Sox can get a little testy, but pitchers have to be able to pitch inside without fear of being ejected.

First Start for Buchholz

So the second half began in kind of a funny way for the Red Sox. The Red Sox in their alternate Friday night away unis (the ones with the navy shirt) faced the Jays wearing their throwback powder blues. And a player we haven't seen all season took the mound in the form of Clay Buchholz. He's spent the past year and a half "recovering" from that no hitter he threw in 2007. His record in AAA this year is undeniable though (7-2, 2.42 ERA). It's time to give him a shot this year.

Tonight he pitched 5 2/3 giving up only one run. He had some base runners and had to pitch around some things, but over all he looked pretty good. The breaking pitches were biting and he was locating his fast ball well. You can't complain about that, especially since he left the game in line for a win with a 4-1 lead.

Another kid held down the fort with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Daniel Bard continued to pitch well. Some pitchers really look like their trying to throw hard. Bard on the other hand has a super smooth delivery, but the ball just jumps out of his hand. 98 mph is never a problem. Sixteen of the last twenty three outs he's recorded have been K's.

Okajima and Paps pitched the 8th and 9th like clockwork and just like that the Sox have their first win of the second half. The icing on top is that the Sox designated Julio "The Domestic Abuser" Lugo for assignment. Hooray!

Marlins Continue to Assist Sox

After helping out the Sox by sweeping the Blue Jays in Toronto, the Marlins returned to their normal pathetic selves last night as Boston hammered them 8-2. Big Papi hit a solo HR and a two run single for the cause, and Tim Wakefield baffled a Florida line up, which was only 3-16 coming into the game against Wake. This inexperience proved to be their undoing.

David Ortiz continues to improve. He's hitting .375 over the past week with 3 HR. He's now been moved to up to fifth in the line up. That's fine. The five or six spot in Boston's line up is still an opportunity for 100 RBI.

Now that John Smoltz and Clay Buchholz appear to be ready to join the roster. Boston finds itself with an enviable problem, seven capable starting pitchers. There's been a lot of talk of trading Brad Penny, but how can you do that when even he's coming around now? If they trade him and the pitching staff stays healthy and effective for the rest of the year, they look like geniuses. If they trade him, and John Smoltz gets hurt again or some other disaster befalls the Sox, they will look like shortsighted nincompoops. Buchholz is 23. He will get his shot soon enough. I think they have to see how Smoltz looks before they make any moves.