Clay Buchholz deserves an award for what he did last night. Boston's bullpen has been so overworked they have had to cut guys just so they can bring in a fresh arm (Boston relievers came in having worked an AL-high 70 innings this season). Clay gave the bullpen a much needed break pitching 117 pitches over 8 strong innings, and to make it even better he was able to hold the Jays to just 1 run.
Buchholz allowed 1 run on 7 hits to win for the first time in 3 starts. He walked 2, struck out 4 and lowered his ERA to 2.19. Like I said in the preview, Clay has been by far our best starter this season.
The Jays struck first, as Vernon Wells continues to crush the ball with an RBI double in the 1st inning. Luckily for the Sox that would be the last time anyone from the Jays would cross the plate. Boston answered quickly with an RBI single by Hermida. Mike Lowell drove in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 8th inning, and Ramon Ramirez was able to give Papelbon the night off and rack up a save.
Listen, the Sox aren't scoring runs still, and there is no reason to get overconfident, but there is still a lot of hope for this team. You have to remember they are playing without 2 of their starting outfielders, and Dice-K is just making his way back. As long as their starters (Lackey, Lester, Beckett) begin to pitch better this team will be alright, though I still don't know how they are going to score many runs.
With the win Boston is still 5 1/2 games back for the Rays, but only 3 games back from the Yankees.
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