Joy to the world, the Sox are .500. It was thanks to a struggling Tommy Hunter, a red hot Mike Aviles, and some contributions from Pedroia, Ortiz, and Middlebrooks.
Clay Buchholz sucks. He has no confidence out there. Once one or two things go wrong, and he disintegrates. He falls into quicksand and can't free himself. If not for a double-play ball in the 3rd, he might have been tagged for 6 or 7 runs. Nevertheless, he still allowed 5 in 5.1 innings. Far from impressive.
Ideally, I'd put Bard in the bullpen and Buchholz in Pawtucket until he sorted himself out. Unfortunately, the Sox don't have replacements for these struggling SPs. We'll just have to endure both of them until Daisuke returns. Then decide which one to exile.
I don't see much progress with Buchholz. He's still laboring through innings. He got some fortunate bounces last night, and that helped. But without those bounces, he gives up 7 and doesn't go 5 innings.
But this was a good win, nonetheless. Hunter seemed like a guy the Sox should hit. And they did that. And not only are the Sox .500, they are tied with the Yankees for 4th place. Cue the duckboats.
Doubront faces Brian Matusz tonight. Matusz has had mostly bad starts with a few good starts mixed in. He's a lefty, so he has a shot against the Sox. But they should get a few across the plate against him.
Photo Credit:
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