Game 152: Clay Buchholz leads Sox to split

by Randy Booth on Sep 25, 2009 12:14 AM EDT in Game Stories

Final - 9.24.2009	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Boston Red Sox	0	0	1	3	0	1	0	1	4	10	15	0
Kansas City Royals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	10	5
WP: Clay Buchholz (7 - 3) LP: Anthony Lerew (0 - 1)

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Like I said two days ago: Split. Split. Split.

Thanks to Clay Buchholz, that split was possible, as the Sox beat the Royals tonight, 10-3.

Buchholz was very good, striking out eight in 6.2 innings of work. He allowed no runs, no walks and five hits on the day. After another solid start, Buchh has lowered his ERA to 3.21 on the season. Nice.

Offensively, a lot of guys contributed. David Ortiz had a home run and three hits, while Jacoby Ellsbury had three himself. Dustin Pedroia had two RBIs and two hits, while Victor Martinez, Casey Kotchman and Alex Gonzalez all each had two hits as well.

Whew. What a way to finish this series. While the Sox should have had three games here, I'll take the split after losing the first two games. And how about Clay Buchholz? Guy has been a stud lately. Let's hope he carries that into the postseason (if the Sox make it, of course). The offense is still clicking, too.

Now it's time for a big series: three games in New York. While I guess we can't say this series will "make or break the Sox," a sweep would be fantastic. Let's give the Yankees a run for their money, shall we?

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Buchh

Man it sure is great to see Clay pitch this way, especially now when we need it the most. I hope this is what we can expect out of him in the future and he put 2008 behind him. Wow, just a great game for him.

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Sep 25, 2009 12:23 AM EDT reply actions

Absolutely

The fastball is under control, his curve and change are remarkable, and he gave up 2 hits in the first without freaking out.

It’s like he went down a list of problems from last year and has done his best to be downright impressive in every troubled area. He’s gone above and beyond.

3.21 ERA which comes down a ton by taking out just 2 blowup starts. 1.41 ERA on the month. The K:BB isn’t the greatest, but he’s improving there and, even when he doesn’t have his best stuff as we saw against Baltimore he makes the necessary adjustments.

Sean Casey says a lot of less-than-great stuff when he commentates (have you noticed that he likes to talk about “looking for a pitch you can drive”?), but he was dead on when he said Buck is pushing to get into that conversation with Beckett and Lester.

by Ben Buchanan on Sep 25, 2009 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Buchholz has also been the beneficiary of the improved Sox defense.

Batters have been hitting a lot of ground balls against him (68%), so a solid infield is critical to his success. I know he had a bad year in 2008, but now I wonder how much of his problems were exacerbated by the porous defense in the first half of the season with Lugo at SS.

by lone1c on Sep 25, 2009 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions

That was likely part of it

But a lot of it was mental for sure. I think that maybe the porous D could have been the start of his issues on occassion and he wasn’t together enough to work past it.

Man I love that tuna casserole.

by Bloggy on Sep 25, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions