Red Sox minor lines: The Buchholz virus

Pawtucket L 4-11

Rusney Castillo: 2-5, HR, K
Sam Travis: 0-4, K

Henry Owens: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
Noe Ramirez: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

It's time to shut Henry Owens down. There's clearly something wrong here. Not just because his inability to throw strikes has reached an alarming level, either. According to Alex Speier, his fastball was sitting in the mid-80s. That makes the jump from bad, to wrong. Owens has never been a flamethrower, but mid-80s? The man is broken. It's time to work on fixing him.

Portland L 4-5

Ty Buttrey: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 0 K

Without any such velocity readings on Buttrey it's hard to make the same statement for him, but he's been every bit as awful, and it's every bit as removed from his previous performances. One day after the pitching put on a show, the worst aspects of it have made themselves known.

Of course it did come on a Buchholz day. That's it! I've figured it out! It's all Clay Buchholz' fault! Get on board, everyone! We're riding this scapegoat all the way to the bank!

Salem L 6-9

Yoan Moncada: 0-5, 2 K
Mauricio Dubon: 1-4, BB, K
Nick Longhi: 1-4, K
Rafael Devers: 1-4, HR

I've moved past the point of taking any single Devers game and hoping it'll be the one that heralds a turnaround. At this point he will be good when he's good. That time will come, and if it comes now, or in July, or in August, there's not really that much difference in the scheme of things.

Greenville L 4-7

Josh Ockimey: 0-2, 2 BB
Kyri Washington: 1-4, 2 K, SB
Austin Rei: 0-3, BB, 2 K, E
Luis Alexander Basabe: 0-3, BB

Marc Brakeman: 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
Austin Glorius: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

How is Brakeman the best starting pitcher of the day? My God.