Sox Win Slugfest, Buchholz Struggles

The Boston bats came out of the gate swinging and hammering the Orioles, scoring 4 in the first, and 14 runs total in the first 4 innings, scoring in each of them. You would think that staked to a 4 run lead in the first, that Buchholz would cruise, too, yet he walked the first batter he faced. He made it through the first 2 innings without allowing a run, but in the third inning, staked to a 7 run lead by that point, he climbed into the barrel until he gave up 6 runs. The Sox added 7 more runs in the 4th inning, giving Buchholz an 8 run lead heading into the bottom of the 5th. After a lead off homer by Adam Jones, he issued a free pass and allowed a single, which earned him an early trip to the bench. (Is it too late to swap Buchholz to get Masterson back?) The rest of the bullpen didn’t fare well as they should have, but…

The Sox bats were still not done, though, not until they hammered the O’s for 23 hits. (And neither were the O’s bats quiet.) Every Sox starter had at least 1 hit, (save 1), 5 of them with multi-hit performances. Victor Martinez led the way with a 5 hits in 6 AB’s and 4 RBI’s.