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Clay Buchholz is good. Real good.
Buchholz dominated the Twins en route to a 3-2 Red Sox victory on Wednesday night. Buchholz worked into the 9th inning, but finished with a great overall line: 8 innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. He allowed a 4th inning RBI double by Mauer and a allowed one more in the 9th, but was able to get out with the win.
David Ortiz and Bill Hall provided the offense. Ortiz hit a huge two-run home run in the 4th that was originally ruled a triple but was reviewed and changed to a home run. That put the Sox up, 2-1. Then in the 6th, Hall singled in Adrian Beltre, giving the Sox a nice 3-1 lead.
Daniel Bard allowed the run to cross the plate in the 9th, but was OK allowing just a hit and a walk.
Overall, we can only be happy about tonight's game. The offense wasn't explosive, but we didn't need that tonight. We needed an offense just good enough to support Buchholz and that's what happened.
Back to Buchholz. Buch -- or, if you prefer, BucKKKKKKK -- was just lights out. All his pitches were working and the Twins really didn't have a chance in his 8 innings of work. He was making the Twins look foolish on all his pitches. He got a little help from the home plate umpire, but who doesn't once in a while? We should be happy with this start because it was exactly what the Red Sox needed.