| 18 July 2009
The Red Sox kicked off the second half in style last night, beating the Blue Jays 4-1.
Clay Buchholz earned a spot start with a strong season in Pawtucket and grabbed his first major league voctory since May 2, 2008. Buchhy fanned three and walked three through 5 2/3 innings, grabbed the win and was promptly sent back to Triple A where he will wait for a roster spot to open up.
Buchholz proved he can win in the majors, so now we'll have to wait and see if the Sox make a move (I'm looking at you Brad Penny) and call him up... or trade Buchholz himself.
The later is unlikely, but we have 14 more days to speculate before the trade deadline on July 31st.
Buchhy was good, but I want to point out that the bullpen looked sharp again after struggling through early July. Daniel Bard has really become a force in middle relief and the Sox will have to start thinking about if andwhen they will drop him back into the minors to aoid speeding up his arbitration eligability... Bard fanned three baters in 1 1/3 innings, including Bautista with two men on in the 6th. And Okie Dokie and Paps closed out the game with solid innings of there own.
Youk hit his 17th ding dong to put the Sox up early and Ortiz scored two with a double in the 5th to seal the deal.
Bottom Line: Strong work all around despite the potential to be rusty after the break. Also... just because I can, here's my prediction for Romero that we posted at Red Sox Monster earlier this week:
Romero is 7-3 with a 3.00 ERA overall this season, but he did not pitch well against the Red Sox earlier this year. On May 31st he lasted just 4.0 innings, allowing 5 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks... and walks could be his downfall again this weekend. Romero fanned 28 batters in his last 5 starts, but he also walked 14 along the way. He beat two of the most patient teams in the majors in the Yankees (373 BB, 1st) and the Rays (369, 3rd), but the Red Sox are second with 371 walks and hit southpaws well: .837 OPS, 2nd and 140 R, 4th. If they wait Romero out they should be able to send him to the showers early.
And here's his actual line from the game: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 5 BB, 8 K
"He didn't have his command tonight, he walked five guys," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "He had eight strikeouts but it was the walks that killed him tonight."
Sometimes, I'm wicked smaaaht... sometimes.
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