“Having less hair makes it easier to throw!” (Peter Power(/The Canadian Press via AP)
The Red Sox won. God that feels good to type. I’m going to be typing a lot of words and phrases pertaining to this game that I haven’t in a while. Seems like it’s been almost a month. I hope I don’t pull a muscle…
The Red Sox’ bats got off to a hot start (… and I’m already sore). Mookie Betts tripled to right-center on what was almost the catch of the month by Kevin Pillar, but he wasn’t able to hang on. Pedey grounded out on the next pitch, and voilà! The Sox had the lead.
But they weren’t done yet. Papi walked, Hanley grounded into a fielder’s choice, Panda doubled, and Napoli swatted a R.A. Dickey knuckleball like it was a fly that stayed on his kitchen counter for a second too long. Maybe if the fly wasn’t hot dogging it next to your food (pun!), you could try and escort it out the window. But when they taunt you like that, you have no choice but to show them who’s boss and squash them. (The last two sentences weren’t an extended analogy for the homer, just a little life lesson from your pal Righty.)
Even better than the homerun itself was the fact that Nap kept his front shoulder closed on this one, and really drove the ball with authority to left-centerfield. He’s had a couple of extra base hits recently, but his front side still looked like it was flying open which made him hit pitches that were middle/in to the opposite field. That definitely wasn’t the case here. Sox lead 4-0 in the first.
Now finally staked with a lead, a Red Sox starter can go out there, throw strikes, and have some quick innings. Except it didn’t happen that way because Clay Buchholz doesn’t play by your rules. “Why get a normal haircut when I can look like this?”
I give you, Clay Buchholz’s new hair. https://t.co/ztZRZJRRzo
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) May 10, 2015
“Why set down the side ‘in order’ when I can do it in whatever order I damn well please?” He walked the first batter he faced, induced a double play, walked the next two batters he faced, then got a groundout to end the inning. But when it was all said and done, Clay would turn in a quality start en route to his second win of the season (and only the second win for the team in games Clay has started). The first was opening day.
| Boston | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buchholz (W, 2-4) | 6.1 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5.73 |
He was hardly dominant, but thanks to the offense looking more like itself (or what we all hope it ends up looking like), he didn’t have to be. Sandoval would leave the yard with a man on in the fifth giving the Sox pitching staff 6 whole runs to work with! Taz and Uehara combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, and just like that the Red Sox are back in the win column.
Notes:
-Pedey did this in the field. We should never take these kinds of plays for granted, even though we know he does it night in and night out. Yes, I used the majestic plural because in this case I know what’s best for you so you should listen to me.
–Jackie Bradley Jr. returned to the lineup and picked up right where he left off, going 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
-It’s going to be a tall task to keep the momentum of this win going; the Sox now head out on a West Coast trip to face the A’s and Mariners. This should also be interesting for me and Lefty, since we struggle to get the blogs out on time when the games end at 10:10PM.