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This is how Clay Buchholz' line reads for Thursday's game against the Marlins:
4 innings pitched, 11 hits, 11 runs, 6 earned runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 4 home runs.
Well, the strikeouts were good.
It was just an ugly day all around for pitchers in Jupiter, FL on both sides, but Clay Buchholz definitely took the worst of it. Starting with a two-run homer from John Buck, Buchholz would allow at least one home run in each of the second, third, and fourth innings. Two came off the bat of young Mike Stanton, with each being worth three runs. When he wasn't giving up homers, he was giving up line drive hits. Hittable? That doesn't quite cover it.
Still, for all that, the game wasn't entirely out of reach by the time Clay's day was done. Through the first five innings, the Sox had put together six runs of their own off of Javier Vazquez led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the man who was easily been the surprise of the spring so far: Jacoby Ellsbury. After Salty hit a rocket over the wall in right to put the Red Sox on the board in the second inning, Ellsbury one-upped him with a two run shot in the third. Salty got back in on things by providing the back end of back-to-back doubles with Kevin Youkilis, and then capped off the Sox' scoring in the fifth with yet another double.
The 11-6 score quickly became 14-6, however, as Michael Bowden faired no better than Clay Buchholz, allowing three singles and a pair of doubles in the bottom of the frame, recording only two outs in the process. With just one more run coming the Sox' way in the ninth inning, there was no coming back, leaving the Marlins with a 15-7 win and the Red Sox with yet another spring training loss.
The Good
Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Jacoby Ellsbury: On the bright side of things, if spring training stats do matter, then the Sox could have two new young stars in Ellsbury and Salty next year. A combined 5-for-6 with two homers and two doubles? That's stuff we expect from Youkilis and Gonzalez.
(The fact that we haven't gotten that from them kind of supports that, no, spring training stats don't...)
The Bad
Nobody, because they all belong in...
The Ugly
Clay Buchholz: I was immediately reminded of a couple of games Clay had in 2008 and 2009 against the Chicago White Sox. I seemed to remember a lot of homers and runs in just a few innings, and thinking that must have been Clay Buchholz at his worst.
That is not his worst. This is his worst.
Designated Hitters: David Ortiz and David Mailman combined to go 0-for-5 with five strikeouts.Ortiz is slumping and slumping hard right on cue. Maybe he's just getting it out of the way?