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The Red Sox have unexpected momentum at their backs, looking to stay ahead of the East and hopefully get Clay Buchholz back on the right foot.
This is a pretty important start for Clay Buchholz. He had his strong stretch, but his last outing was the three-inning disaster that forced the Red Sox to do so much work to take the rubber match in their series against the Jays. He needs a good outing to make that game a blip on his otherwise positive fresh start, otherwise the three good dames will quickly be the blip on his otherwise disastrous season.
On the bright side, while Buchholz is uncertain, so is his opponent. Luis Cessa is no Masahiro Tanaka. He’s been fine in his opening season, but is very much a pitch-to-contact guy with low-but-not-minuscule walk rate pitching in Fenway Park. He’s also had big home run troubles this season, and while it’s not clear how likely those are to persist, exactly, that’s mostly made up for on the year by a very high strand rate which his peripherals just don’t really fit.
First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. ET with broadcasts on NESN, WEEI, and the MLB Network.