Clay Buchholz Sparkles Yet Again as Red Sox Win Third Straight

The Red Sox are getting some stellar pitching from Clay Buchholz as of late and he again turned in a fine performance on Monday night, helping the Red Sox win their third straight by defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-3.

Despite giving up a solo home run to Austin Jackson to start the game, followed up by a double to Quintin Berry, Buchholz would settle down and control the game the rest of the way.  In the end, Buchholz went 8.0 strong innings while giving up 3 runs on just 5 hits, while striking out 4 and walking 2.  It’s the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from Buchholz and it’s making his early season struggles feel like a distant memory.

Given the struggles that Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have shown this year and most recently, it’s easy to say that Clay Buchholz is one of the main reasons the Sox are still in the hunt for a wild card spot; Felix Doubront being the other when it comes to starting pitching.

Buchholz was again the beneficiary of offensive run support on this night, most noticeably Dustin Pedroia‘s 9th long ball of the season in the sixth inning off Detroit’s starter Max Scherzer to break at 2-2 tie.  It was a two run shot that gave the Red Sox the lead, one they would not relinquish.

Will Middlebrooks ripped his 13th of the year over the Monster in left to add two more insurance runs in the 8th off Phil Coke. Aside from Pedey and Middlebrooks, every other Red Sox starting positional player had a hit except for Ryan Sweeney.  The offense appears to be on track and with some solid pitching as of late the Sox have now won three in a row.

Changes appear to be coming via the trade deadline on Tuesday.  It’s still unclear as to who will be going where and which players will be packing their bags for Boston.  But this much we do know.  When the Red Sox play game two of a ten game  home stand, there very well could be new faces to welcome and old ones gone away.