3 Stars of the game; Game 11
Its proving tough for teams to defeat both the 1 and 2 starters for the Boston Red Sox. Jon Lester who pitched yesterday and Clay Buchholz who pitched today have both been lights out. Buchholz got the run support he needed today and picked up his 3rd win of the season in his third start. After 2 games of in the series the sox have won both and can clinch a series win against the Rays in tomorrows Patriots Day game. Here are your three stars of the game:
Star 3: Dustin Pedroia
Pedroia went 3-4 today to help the teams cause. While he did not score any runs or have any RBI's his ability to get hits helped fuel the offense. In the top of the ninth inning he helped turn a double play that ended any hopes Tampa had of staging a late rally.
Star 2: Mike Napoli
Napoli went 1-3 today with a double to the triangle in deep center in the second inning plating 2. He later went on to score on a fielders choice hit by Stephen Drew later in the inning. Napoli was at the heart of the Red Sox offensive effort today contributing to 3 of the teams 5 runs.
Star 1: Clay Buchholz
Lights Out. Thats all that really needs to be said about the performance by Buchholz but I will expand on the fact. Buchholz had a no hitter going into through 7 innings before giving up his first hit of the game with no outs in the 8th inning. Buchholz pitched 8 innings giving up 2 hits and striking out a career high 11 batters. He gave up 0 runs and walked 4 hitters. His dominance this season and today has brought his ERA down to 0.41 Buchholz threw 109 pitches, 69 of them for strikes. Buchholz is on fire this year, I predicted 18 wins but right now im not even going to predict the sky is the limit for him and for this team.