Buchholz Makes Good With Boston
Say what you will about Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz, but he’s heard it all before: he’s too immature, he’s too skinny, he’s not ready for this level of play, he’s not worth the hype.
Wednesday night, the 25-year-old Texan took to the hill for the seventh time this season and only had to deal with the man he was rumored to be dealt for – Toronto stud Roy Halladay – and in the middle of the AL East pennant race where every game matters.
Buchholz defied the odds and looked like the star this time around. Pitching six innings, he allowed just one earned run and pitched the Sox to victory. Halladay, on the other hand, looked like the inexperienced pitcher here, allowing 4 runs in 5 innings.
While Buchholz’s performance against Halladay is obviously impressive, the two starts before this one were nearly as difficult. One was against CC Sabathia of the Yankees. During this game, Buccholz only allowed two earned runs in six innings pitched. The other one was against Justin Verlander of the Tigers, in which case Buchholz surrendered just one earned run in seven innings pitched. Simply put, he’s been solid.
While there have been struggles – namely a horrendous outing against Baltimore before this stretch of quality starts – Buchholz (2-3, 3.99 ERA) has been pitching well enough to keep his spot until Tim Wakefield and/or Daisuke Matsusaka returns and deserves credit for filling a hole left by John Smoltz’s abysmal run in a Red Sox uniform.
Incidentally, Buchholz was the subject of many rumors leading up to the trade deadline. It’s very well possible that these rumors had a real impact on his performance, which is when his struggles essentially took place.
Now, Buccholz is firm in his role with the Red Sox and happy to be a part of a team in a chase. He’s growing up some more with each start and may finally be reaching the potential that so many Red Sox faithful always knew he possessed.
You have to like thinking ahead to a rotation featuring Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Matsusaka and Buchholz in 2010, but there’s a lot of baseball this season to be played and more opportunities for him to evolve into an ace of his own.
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