Another Great Buchholz Outing Lifts Boston Red Sox Over Tampa Bays Rays 6-1

Clay Buchholz had his mojo working, striking out 8 Tampa Bay Rays players over 6 innings, leading his team to a 6-1 victory over the team with the best record in all of major league baseball. Hideki Okajima followed with two great innings and Daniel Bard made it all official by finishing up. Big Papi David Ortiz and the super hot Kevin Youkilis both homered to help the cause. Dustin "Pedey" Pedroia broke out of his slump with three hits, one on a second chance "ceiling scraper." It was only a matter of time. He had this to say after the game...

"We're getting great starting pitching. When you do that, all we have to do is put a couple runs on the board and those guys can take over. We're in the middle of the year and just playing. We're playing some really good teams and just finding ways to win. That's a real good sign."

The only bad news was that Sox catcher Victor Martinez, who has also been offensively hot, suffered a contusion to his toe when he was hit by a foul ball. He is tentatively day-to-day but I don't expect him back until a week goes by. The captain, Jason Varitek, will fill his place as the starting catcher. X-Rays showed no break or he might have been out until the All Star break. Phew! The Tampa Bay manager, Joe Maddon, had these few words of praise for their rivals from New England...

"They got us tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We didn't play badly. They beat us."

Joe, what do you think of the play of Kevin Youkilis...

“I know that he’s been hot lately, but listen, this guy, he’s the poster child for working a great at-bat, he just is,” Maddon said. “He always seems to step up at the right moment, I don’t care who’s pitching, I don’t care how good the guy is, whether it’s a starter or reliever, he’s very scary. He’s just unique, he’s different.”

Hey Joe, he's great, one of the elite hitters and fielders in all of baseball. Youk is YOUK and there is no other. If he keeps this up he'll be All Star game bound. Count on it. Boston has now won 6 of their last 7 games. Two more wins against these Rays would be sweet indeed, narrowing the gap between the two teams. It'll be Lester (4-2) vs. Shields (5-1) in an evening contest. GO SOX.

Click on this post's title for more on last night's win, thanks for stopping by and as always, BE WELL. And to VMart, heal quickly. We need you in the lineup. See ya.