The Clay Buchholz of Old Delivers a Brilliant Outing
The Red Sox needed to salvage a win in their home series against the stubborn Baltimore Orioles on Thursday and they turned to Clay Buchholz in hopes of doing so. And on this night, the Buchholz of old took the mound at Fenway Park and threw an absolute gem, leading the Sox to a 7-0 victory.
Buchholz was brilliant, throwing a complete game 9.0 innings and he gave up just four hits and no runs. He struck out six and walked just one batter while throwing 125 pitches. Not since June 4, 2010 has Buchholz thrown a complete game shut out when he did so against the same Baltimore Orioles.
He was that good then and he was that good tonight. It was clearly his best outing in the past two years and you can now make it three straight starts in which he’s gone at least seven innings and allowed under two earned runs. Is it risky to say the old Clay Buchholz is back? It appears so.
The offense gave Buchholz a nice lead early on in this one, putting up deuces on the scoreboard in each of the first three innings. The Orioles sloppy defense attributed to a couple of the runs, committing a pair of errors taking their major league leading total to 54 on the season.
Adrian Gonzalez had a big night at the plate after critics again crept up and questioned his hitting ability, going 3-for-4 with two RBI.
Daniel Nava continues to impress making it two straight nights in which he collected a pair of hits and he added two RBI throughout the game.
Kevin Youkilis was the other Red Sox player to have a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 while driving in one run.
Orioles starter Brian Matusz looked the Clay Buchholz of April, going just 2+ innings and struggling mightily with his command as evidenced by his 5 walks.
The Red Sox needed to catch a break on this night and Matusz gave them just that. The victory is the Red Sox first against the Orioles at Fenway Park this season and they are now just 3.5 games out of first in the division. The problem is they are still in last but are playing much better baseball and can now finally say they have Clay Buchholz back in their rotation. The old, dominating Clay Buchholz.