Buchholz Blastoff
August 10, 2008
May 2, 2008. Does that date ring a bell to you? May 2 was the last time that Clay Buchholz won a game for the Red Sox. Well over three months ago. Buchholz lasted just three innings giving up five earned runs on seven hits. The 3-4-5 hitters of the Chicago White Sox punished the mistakes of Clay Buchholz more than any other part of their lineup by each tagging the right-hander for a home run a piece. Jermaine Dye launched a solo shot before Carlos Quintin and Jim Thome blasted a two-run bomb each. Buchholz looked very flustered on the mound but when asked after the game if he was losing any confidence out there he replied by saying, “It’s more frustration than loss of confidence”.
Buchholz is now 2-8 on the season but feels like he is getting closer to being back to where he wants to be, “I feel like I’ve been getting better and better”. Unfortunately, the Red Sox don’t have time to wait for his return to form. The Red Sox have placed Tim Wakefield on the 15-day disabled list leaving the number four slot in the rotation open and with his poor outing again today, maybe even the fifth slot. “It is what it is” Buchholz said after the game.
The potential replacements for Tim Wakefield who will miss at least two starts could be triple-A knuckleballer Charlie Zink. Zink is 13-4 with Pawtucket carrying a 2.89 ERA leading the club with 152.1 innings pitched. The other option of course would be the return of Bartolo Colon. In his rehab start on Sunday, Colon threw three shutout innings giving up just three hits, no walks and struck out three.
Colon threw 34 pitches in his start, therefore taking him out of the equation to fill in for Wakefield’s next start. However, out of those 34 pitches thrown, 27 were strikes. I wouldn’t count Colon out to fill in for the second of two potential starts to be missed by Tim Wakefield. If the Red Sox decide to pull the plug on Clay Buchholz for a little while, expect to see both Zink and Colon up with the big club at the same time. It should also be noted that there have been no indications that the Red Sox plan or will plan on removing Buchholz from the rotation but from a fan’s perspective, it only seems logical. Who knows, we might even see Masterson return as a starter. Masterson has been of great value to this club both as a starter and as a reliever and will certainly assume any role given to him as long as it benefits the team.
Justin Masterson pitched two and two thirds innings in relief and was brilliant in his time out on the mound. Coming out in relief of David Aardsma who pitched out of a big jam striking out two batters, Masterson came out of the gates and dominated the White Sox. In his relief appearance he gave up just one hit and walked none giving the Red Sox a chance to come back. Masterson struck out more batters in his relief appearance than Buchholz did as the starting pitcher with five K’s to Clay’s four.
With Mike Lowell’s three-run home run in the top of the first inning, an RBI single by Jason Bay (his eighth RBI since joining the team) and a strikeout by Jason Varitek that saw the third strike get away to score JD Drew from third, the Red Sox managed to get themselves within one run but would eventually fall to the White Sox 6-5. The Red Sox look to break even in this four-game set at US Cellular tomorrow when they send Josh Beckett to the mound against the lefty, John Danks. Beckett’s last start was one of his best in recent starts going six and two thirds innings giving up two runs on four hits while striking out seven Royals in a winning effort. It was Beckett’s first win since July 9 but he will look to continue his winning ways with a quality start tomorrow in the series finale.
-Jared Carrabis
-CARRABIS 13
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