Buchholz, Big Bats Lift Sox Over First Place Rays
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
It seems a bit crazy to say that a Major League Baseball game in May would be a “must win” for any team. But, last night at the Tropicana Dome in St. Petersburg, Florida, that’s pretty much what the Red Sox faced.
Heading into last night’s series opener, the Sox trailed the AL Wild Card-leading Yankees by just 2 ½ games so it wasn’t a “must win” for post season purposes. However, at 8 ½ behind Tampa in the AL East, you almost felt like Boston could ill afford a loss to drop 9 ½ off the pace in the division race.
And so it was. The Red Sox had the man tabbed as their fourth or fifth starter coming out of spring training going to the mound in the opener. Although Clay Buchholz has pitched more like Boston’s ace thus far leading the staff in wins and ERA. And last night he was up to the challenge again.
Tampa’s offense made Buchholz work for the win pushing his pitch count to 108 through 6 innings. But Buchholz was able to scatter six Rays hits over that span with Carlos Pena’s solo homerun in the bottom of the fourth inning accounting for the only run given up by the 25-year old.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense continued to produce the way it has virtually all season long by using the long ball to open up an early lead.
David Ortiz tied the team lead with his ninth homerun of the season on a solo shot to right in the top of the second to make it 1-0 Boston. The Sox added three more runs in the third before Kevin Youkilis belted his team-leading tenth long ball of the year. The two-run shot made it 6-0 Boston. The Sox would eventually win it 6-1.
In the grand scheme of things it’s only one win and pulls the Sox to within 7 ½ of the Rays for the division lead. But Boston needed this. After getting swept in a 4-game series by the Rays at Fenway last month, this is exactly what they were looking for.
When the Red Sox started this 6-game road trip against first place teams in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, the thought was that a 3-3 finish would be just fine. Now, after a near no-hitter, a win over Roy Halladay and a victory over baseball’s best team, they have won 3 of the first 4. This now has a chance to be something much more than a .500 road trip. It could be the beginning of Boston’s rise through the ranks of the American League East.
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