The Red Sox rallied from behind to win the game last night to thankfully not get swept by the O’s. Clay Buchholz looked a little shaky in the first couple of innings, but he settled right in and continued to look like the ace of the staff. The offense had his back as the game went on and got him his 11th win of the season.
Buchholz started the game looking like he might not be on the mound for very long. Buchholz gave up two singles and then an RBI double to Jones to have the Sox down 0-2 in the first. Buchholz also gave up a leadoff homerun to Mark Reynolds in the 2nd inning to have the Sox down 1-3. It just didn’t look like Buchholz’s day. However, the night was not over and from the 3rd inning on Buchholz looked like a different guy. In the 3rd, Buch ended up hitting Adam Jones with a pitch. Many believe that pitch was more than intentional for how hard Jones went into Salty the night before. After the Sox bats gave Buchholz the lead in the 6th, he came out and struck out the side…ON NINE PITCHES. That is basically as perfect as you can be in an inning. Buchholz has consistently looked like the best starting pitcher that the Sox have for more than a month and he continued that trend last night. Clay pitched 8 strong innings last night and his pitching line was 107 pitches, 8 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 BB and 7 Ks. Alfredo Aceves came out in the 9th and struck out the side for his 24th save of the season.
As for the offense, they were finally able to muster a later in the game rally behind their starting pitcher. The Sox scored a single run in the 2nd inning when Podsednik hit an RBI single to score Punto who had walked. Sox 1-2. In the 5th, the Sox were able to tie the game 3-3 when Pedey scored on a wild pitch and then Gonzo got a sac fly RBI to score Pedey. The Sox took the lead for good in the 6th when they got all over Luis Ayala. Pedey hit an RBI single to score Scotty Pods, Gonzo hit an RBI single to score Crawford and then Ross hit an RBI single to score Pedey. Sox 6-3. It was great to see the Sox put together a rally of timely hitting. I’d like to see a lot more of it. I also think it’s surprising and refreshing to see how productive the bottom of the order was for the Red Sox. In particular, Scott Podsednik went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
Finally…the water is dirty. Let’s keep it that way while we head to Yankee Stadium for a weekend series.
Red Sox 6 Orioles 3 BOXSCORE
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