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TOO MANY INJURIES TO STAY COMPETITIVE ...
Kalish slams a homer
while
Buchholz shuts out the Angels
August 17, 2010 ...
Dustin Pedroia got the ovation to start, when he stepped into the
batter's box in the first inning. But by the end the game, the cheers
were for Clay Buchholz, who shut the Angels down last night at Fenway
Park as the Red Sox won, 6-0. Just 64 of his 113 pitches were
strikes, so one might have expected him to have allowed more than
five hits or more than two walks over the seven innings he worked.
But he didn't, improving to 14-5 and helping the Sox keep pace with
their rivals in the American League East.
Adrian
Beltre attempted to get the Sox on the board in the second, belting one to
right, but Torii Hunter went back, bent over the wall, and nabbed the ball. It
was a spectacular catch, a reminder that Hunter still can flash the leather,
even if the Angels recently moved him from center to right. The Sox' next two
tries for homers? Those went out.
In the third
Darnell McDonald rocketed one over the Green Monster and into the back seat of a
car with Rhode Island plates in a garage across Lansdowne Street. It was the
first hit and the first run allowed by Weaver, the league leader in strikeouts
and among the best pitchers in the American League this season. But it was the
next Boston blast, a grand slam in the fourth by Ryan Kalish into the Sox
bullpen, that had the greatest impact.
A David
Ortiz single and two-out walks to J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell preceded Kalish's
shot. It was the second homer of Kalish's career and his first slam, and it was
only the fourth time this season Weaver had given up at least five runs.
Buchholz was
still going strong, though it wasn't entirely a breeze. In that sixth inning, he
gave up singles to Alberto Callaspo and Hunter and walked Hideki Matsui. But he
got Erick Aybar to ground to first.
Buchholz has
inserted his name into the conversation for the Cy Young Award with 13 wins in
his last 15 starts and an ERA of 2.36. The Sox backed him by doing damage to
both a back windshield and Jered Weaver's ERA. |
