Clay's Royal Performance

Clay Buchholz is becoming the pitcher that the Red Sox thought he would be right before our eyes. Tonight in Kansas City he put on a royal performance, shutting out the Royals for 6.2 innings, scattering 5 hits, walking none, and striking out 8. OK, he did hit one Royal, but otherwise he has become a solid candidate for starter #3 in the post-season. R2 came in the 7th to finish off that inning on 2 pitches, but fell apart in the 8th, and surrendered 3 runs before being lifted for Saito, who finished the game. Buchholz is now 7-3, with a 3.21 ERA.

On the other side of the plate, the Sox unleashed a barrage of 15 hits, including multi-hit games by 6 starters, and plated 10 of them. Alex Gonzalez went 2 for 5, scoring twice and raising his batting average to .241, which is 31 points higher than when he arrived in Boston. While the Sox were doing all that scoring, Zack Greinke was ejected for impersonating the home plate umpire. Manager Trey Hillman followed Greinke to the clubhouse a short while later.

Next stop for the Sox is da Bronx, with Jon Lester facing Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain is in the middle of a serious slump, not unlike Beckett’s recent woes. Let’s hope Chamberlain doesn’t snap out of it just yet. Sabathia follows against Dice-K. Sabathia is due for a loss, as the Yanks have won the 10 games that he has started. Mystery man Paul Byrd goes up against Andy Pettitte in the 3rd match. Pettitte has been nursing a fatigued left shoulder.

Sox Win 10-3 BOX SCORE