One of my favorite parts about living in Boston is going to Fenway Park on a regular basis, especially when a friend has extra tickets through work and I get to go for free. And especially when those tickets are ridiculously good – seats I would never or could never pay for on my own.

That was the case for me last night. My buddy Eddie got tickets through work, and our seats were in the front row of the State Street Pavilion.

Not only that, but our tickets included admission to the EMC club, which is what I imagine Jay Gatsby’s dining room would look like if it overlooked Fenway Park.

The picture is blurry because I tried to take a stealthy picture. I felt out of place enough without holding up my camera in the middle of the room.

Needless to say, on a night when I would’ve been happy with a 5 and a half hour long 16 inning battle, I instead got a 1-0 pitchers duel that was over in a cool two hours and twenty-one minutes. I’m sure that if I was in the right field grandstand with my knees up by my ears, my neck sore from turning towards the plate, and freezing cold because there were no waitresses bringing me hot chocolate and Baileys (it was 46 degrees on June 2nd), the game would’ve lasted 4:30.  But I can’t complain, since it was a fantastic game. Well pitched and well defended on both sides, and the Red Sox won.

The story of the game was Clay Buchholz, who was again masterful for the Red Sox. He pitched 8 innings of shutout ball by necessity, as his team only managed one run in support of their starter, and that run didn’t come until the 7th inning (more on that later). Clay needed just 92 pitches to get through those eight innings, and under different circumstances, I’m sure Farrell would’ve let him come back out to pitch the 9th. However, given the Sox’ lack of offense, and the fact that the Twins squared up a couple balls in their half of the 8th, John didn’t take any chances and brought out Koji to close the door in the 9th.

Clay’s line:

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Buchholz (W, 3-6)	8.0	3	0	0	2	8	0	3.82

Clay’s start:

Over his last four games Buchholz has a 1.47 ERA, and a 27/5 K/BB ratio. As you can see from the line score above, his ERA is now under 4 on the season.

The Red Sox’ lone run came with two outs in the bottom of the 7th, and in fact, the entire rally came with two outs. Xander got things going with a heat-seeker to center that went for a double. Sandy Leon followed with a good at-bat that ended in a walk, bringing up Rusney Castillo. After fouling off two tough two-strike pitches, Castillo singled up the middle, bringing home Bogaerts for what would be the game-winning run.

Rusney helped make sure that it remained the game-winning run by making a catch on the warning track in the bottom of the 8th inning on a ball that looked gone off of the bat of Aaron Hicks.

Notes:

-As I’ve written before, Xander looks like a different guy on the defensive side of the ball thus far in 2015. Last night he made a couple of rangy, tough plays look routine on hard-hit grounders. That being said I’ve noticed that he seems reluctant to lay out for balls just outside of his grasp, instead choosing to lunge for them. Maybe that’s the next step in his progression as a fielder.

-Watch this superman-style stop by Brian Dozier on a Sandoval grounder. Watch him turn two while you’re at it. He’s something else.

-I saw Don Orsillo leaving the game. We were walking in the same direction through the Pavilion and Club levels (nbd) for a solid minute. I’m a huge fan and normally I would’ve asked him for a picture, but he was booking it out of there with a rolling suitcase. The only time he even paused was to give a little girl with a glove a game ball that he had on him. Good looks Don.

-I really could write an entire blog about all the cool stuff I got to see on my night as one of the Fancy Fenway people. Instead here’s a photo gallery:

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-Almost forgot, it was also Mike Napoli bobblehead night. Today was a good day.