| 03 September 2010
The Sox haven't been able to gin any ground int he playoff hunt, so tonight we'll be rooting for Clay Buchholz (15-5, 2.21) as he makes his push for he AL Cy Young Award.
Clay currently leads the AL with a 2.21 ERA, but he's tied for 3rd with Lester and Carl Pavano at 15 wins on the year. A win tonight, would put him in 2nd with David Price and Phil Hughes - who now owns a 4.10 ERA and is not in the CYA running.
Buchhy's lack of strikeouts is really the only thing hurting him. Buchholz finally cracked the 100 K mark in his last start to get to 101, but Felix Hernandez has 200 in 211 innings to go along with a 2.38 ERA and C.C. Sabathia has 165 Ks to go along with 19 wins and 3.02 ERA.
There are a handful of players in the running for the CYA, but Sabathia is the most complete candidate. If Buchholz can stay withing 2 or 3 wins of Sabathia down the stretch and keep his ERA in the low 2.00s... he'll have a real shot at the Cy Young. But if Felix Hernandez manages to add a few wins to his current total of 10, and Buchholz stays put at 14... King Felix's K totals will give him the edge.
Jon Lester, Jared Weaver, Cliff Lee, David Price, Justin Verlander and Francisco Liriano are all in the mix as well, but Buchholz Sabathia and Hernandez are the front runners in my book.
Tonight Buchholz will face the White Sox at Fenway. He's 7-3 witha 2.39 ERA at home this season, but he's 0-1 with a 14.09 ERA in two career starts against Chicago. Just over a year ago, Buchholz allowed 7 runs on 6 hits (2 HR) and 3 walks in a loss to the Chi-Sox... but that was Buccholz 1.0. The 2010 model has been far more effective. Buchholz was named AL pitcher of the month after a 4-0 record with a 1.03 ERA, a 0.98 WHIP and 28/13 K/BB ratio in six August starts.
In his last start, he held the Rays to 1 run and 4 hits through 7+ innings, and threw away the game while trying to hold the speedy Carlos Pena at first. That was one of many bad decisions made by the Sox last night, but we eventually lost that game and it ended up being the nail in the coffin for the 2010 season.
Let's hope he can bounce back from that with another solid outing and give us something to root for down the stretch.
The White Sox will be countering with John Danks (12-9, 3.65). Danks is 1-4 with a 5.08 ERA in 5 starts against Boston, but the Sox haven't faced the White Sox lefty this year and he posted solid numbers against a better Red Sox team in 2009: 1-1, 3.75 ERA, 10 K, 2 BB. That said, the Yankees pounded Danks for 8 runs on 6 hits (3 HR) and 4 walks in his last start. The Yanks own the best OPS vs LHP in baseball at .796... the Sox, despite all the injuries, rank 2nd at .793.
That plus Buchholz should equal victory.
Key Matchups
Victor Martinez is just 2 for 16 (.188) against Danks, but both hits were ding dongs. He's also hitting 4.23 with 3 homers in the past week and .413 against southpaws this season.
AJ Pierzynski hit .333 in August and is riding a 10-game hitting streak that includes 7 multi-hit games. He's also 3 for 4 (.750) in his career against Buchholz.
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