Buchholz keeps on cruisin'

It isn't that we weren't expecting Clay Buchholz to play well, it's that we didn't see this coming. Buchholz continues his dominant streak after yesterday's fantastic outing. In 7 2/3 innings, he allowed only 2 runs on 6 hits and posted 10 strikeouts. With this W, Buchholz is now 5-0, the first Red Sox pitcher since Josh Beckett in'07 to win his first five starts.


In Scott Lauber's article for the Boston Herald, he pointed out that Buchholz had to make some adjustments early. In the first few innings the pitcher was struggling with command on the two-seam fastball. Instead of trying to trick batters on his favorite sinking pitch, he decided to turn to the four-seam fastball. The result? 10 strikeouts. Buchholz himself acknowledged that this adjustment was something that he doesn't think he would be able to do in his younger years:

“Probably not,” he said. “That was one thing that I worked really hard on was having both fastballs and being able to locate them and pitch off that. It’s a little different not having a two-seam to throw whenever I want. It was tough to get to that point at certain spots, but I was able to find a way to get through a couple innings.”