Rough night for the Red Sox, Buchholz and Bradley

It could be the end of the road for Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox after losing to the Rockies Thursday night. Jackie Bradley Jr.’s hitting streak is over.

Coming into Thursday night’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies, Red Sox fans had three questions on their mind: Would the Red Sox pull off the sweep, would Jackie Bradley Jr. continue his amazing 29-game hitting streak and would Clay Buchholz be able to put together a quality start with pressure mounting from the outside to remove the veteran from the rotation. Unfortunately for Sox fans, the answer to all of those questions was a big, fat NO!

Buchholz came into the game with a record of 2-4 and an ERA of 5.92. In the majority of his starts he has struggled with getting deep into games and with runners on base, which has often led to one or two brutal innings that bring the walls down on him and the team. Heading into Thursday’s battle with Colorado, Clay had given up twelve home runs, including five in his last four starts.

With whispers around Fenway and all of Red Sox Nation about the possible return of Eduardo Rodgriguez after Tuesday’s outing in Pawtucket, Clay Buchholz again failed to come through when the team needed it most.

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David Ortiz gave him an early lead with a two-run homer in the first inning, and Buchholz looked to be locked in and cruising early on. He forced the Rockies to go 1-2-3 in each of the first three innings. But we all knew it was too good to be true and couldn’t last. RF Carlos Gonzalez clocked a game-tying two-run blast in the fourth. That was the beginning of the end for Buchholz, who then completely unraveled in the fifth inning, giving up two more two-run shots to SS Trevor Story and C Dustin Garneau. Clay came out for the sixth, gave up a single and his night was over – 5.0 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3 HR and an ERA going the wrong way to 6.35. The Red Sox would go on to lose 8-2.

This could certainly be the last we see of Mr. Buchholz in a Red Sox uniform. The Fenway faithful really let him have it after the third two-run homer, and John Farrell didn’t exactly look too pleased. Fans are definitely antsy and have been for some time regarding his performance. The Boston Herald’s Evan Drellich wrote about Buchholz’ positivity surrounding his status on the team on Wednesday, but it may be inevitable that the Boston brass has to come up with a reason to skip his next start.

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Eduardo Rodriguez deserves a chance to play with the Major League team if he is ready to go, and Buccholz is simply the odd man out. WEEI’s John Tomase wrote about the make-it-or-break-it feeling surround the Red Sox and their relationship with Buchholz on Thursday, and BoSox Injection’s very own Rick McNair discussed the need for a divorce between the two parties recently as well. It’s only going to get uglier if the Red Sox allow Buchholz to continue to head out there and get belted around the park.

Remember the other question about Bradley and his hitting streak? Of course you do…that’s all anyone has been talking about for days! Yeah, well, that came to a crashing halt the moment John Farrell decided to move him into the lead-off spot in the order.

Mookie Betts had a planned night off, so Farrell decided to move the team’s hottest hitter into the lead-off spot. This would seem to be a pretty logical move by the skipper, but sometimes messing around too much with a hitter can prove to be detrimental. And it was the kiss of death on Thursday night. Bradley went 0-4 and his streak ended at 29 games. But don’t worry because now we can move on to the Xander Bogaerts hitting streak watch, as he now has a solid 19-game hitting streak in the works.

Next: Sox take on surging Jays

The Red Sox kick off a weekend in series in Toronto against the 24-25 Blue Jays on Friday night. Joe Kelly (2-0, 5.28) will get the start against Aaron Sanchez (3.20, 4-1).

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