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TOO MANY INJURIES
TO STAY COMPETITIVE ...
Clay Buccholz stays
hot and
shuts
out the Royals
May 29, 2010 ...
Combined with a scoreless inning each from Daniel Bard and Jonathan
Papelbon, Clay Buchholz shut out the Royals, 1-0, last night to end
the Sox' brief losing streak at two games. It righted their pitching
by staying away from most of their bullpen, and demonstrated what
Buchholz means to this club. With the seven innings, Buchholz has
allowed just four runs over his last four outings (27 1/3 innings),
all wins. That's a 1.32 ERA. That's good.
And batters
are not comfortable with Buccholz’s cutter. Not that it was simple. There was a
moment in the eighth inning when Buchholz could have been excused for having a
flashback. Bard allowed a leadoff double to Jason Kendall, who moved to third on
a sacrifice bunt. But Bard got Mike Aviles swinging on a nasty slider, and then
got a boost from his defense. Dustin Pedroia backhanded the hop of a sharp
grounder off the bat of David DeJesus, winging the ball to first in time for the
out. The Sox were out of the inning with their advantage intact. It was a play
that reminded Buchholz of one that saved his 2007 no-hitter. It kept the lead,
and kept Buchholz in line for the win. It was deserved, as well as he has
pitched of late. Buchholz lowered his ERA to 2.73, the best on the team, which
also goes for his seven wins.
There is no
question what he is now, as he proved to be the stopper the Sox needed in an
assignment that wasn't easy. After the Sox had lost the first two games of this
series against supposedly a cakewalk opponent in their home park, they drew 2009
American League Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. Though Greinke (1-6) hasn't
been the pitcher he was last season, he's no pushover.
Buchholz
allowed four hits, four walks (one intentional), and struck out four. He was
helped by a couple of other outstanding defensive plays, including an
awe-inspiring pickup of a Billy Butler rocket by third baseman Adrian Beltre to
start a double play in the fourth. With men on second and third, Beltre
demonstrated once again that his defense is as good as advertised.
The defense
was needed, as the Sox' offense didn't provide much help for Buchholz. Their run
came in the second. Beltre singled to open the inning, then moved to third on
J.D. Drew's double to left-center. Beltre then scored on Mike Lowell's grounder
to second. The Sox could do little else, even squandering a one-out,
bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh against reliever Robinson Tejeda when
Beltre grounded into a double play.
But in the
end, one run was all that was required. It might have made the game a bit more
tense for those watching, but it was enough. |
