Clay Puts Up Nine Goose Eggs

Clay Buchholz pitched another tremendous game Friday evening at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Boston Red Sox defeated the hapless and harmless Baltimore Orioles by a score of 11-0. In his last 5 starts, Clay has a remarkable record of 5-0 and an unbelievable ERA of 0.99. In his nine innings yesterday, he gave up zero runs, 5 hits, struck out 2 and walked but 1. He relied on his moving fastball with his curve and changeup. Boston gave him an early lead and he kept it right through the ninth inning. If he keeps it going like this, he could easily be on the AL All Star team, maybe even be the starting pitcher. Here he is...

“It wasn’t like it was a 0-0 ballgame going into the seventh,’’ Buchholz said. “It’s easy to let yourself throw pitches where you wouldn’t usually throw them and hope for mistakes. The team’s aggressive and they swing at a lot of first-pitch, lot of second-pitch swings. I left some pitches up, they hit it, but it was right at people. It just went my way tonight, I guess.

The Boston skipper, Terry "Tito" Francona, had higher praise for his co-ace...

"Tremendous. A lot of first-pitch outs. He commanded his fastball. He threw it for strikes and stayed out of the middle of the plate. I think he got eight first-pitch outs. That’s huge. Double plays. He threw strikes - curveballs, changeups - but mostly, the command of his fastball was tremendous.”

All I can say is that it was a fun game to watch. No pressure, no clenched fists, no nothing but cheers. And that's what makes baseball what it is. Now if only Bud Selig can get his head out of the sand (it might be in cement. Who knows? If so, he should take a swim in a deep body of water. Very deep. Oil covered. Shark infested. Haunted).

Today at 1:35pm EDT at Camden Yards, it'll be Jon Lester facing Matusz. Lester can win this one...he's been pitching just about as well as Buchholz. Now if only Beckett could heal and start throwing like we know he can. That won't happen for a while.

Thanks for popping in, click on this post's title for more of something about the Sox and as always, BE WELL. Have a great weekend!