Until now.
Friday night marked the beginning of a series that meant a lot for Boston. After last weekend's debacle in New York, there are probably four to five people who still believe the Red Sox can pull off a comeback in the AL East pennant race. The other 6.778 billion have set their sights on greener, more attainable pastures.
Entering Friday's game, Boston held a half-game lead over the Rangers in the wild-card race. Six innings later, it seemed like it was an inevitable truth that Texas was going to take over the top spot. The Red Sox put themselves in a 2-0 hole after one inning, and even when they managed to climb out of it on the back of a David Ortiz home run, Jon Lester quickly coughed up the lead again.
Fast forward to the ninth inning. The Red Sox manage to rally to within a run and there are two men on with one out. Jason Varitek is on second. He's not a great runner.
Enter Buchholz.
Jed Lowrie is on the disabled list. Jacoby Ellsbury has already been employed as a pinch-hitter. Terry Francona does not have much in the way of nimble young baserunners — unless you count Buchholz, which, from now on, nobody will ever make the mistake of doing.
This is one of those moments that could have been the turning point of the season. Boston, clinging desperately to the wild-card lead, needs a double from Dustin Pedroia to tie the game and keep its hopes alive — and Pedroia sends a Frank Francisco offering to the very top of the wall in left-center .
The only problem is, Buchholz can't quite tell if the ball hits the wall or the inside of the outfielder's glove. He stutter-steps on his way to third. He trips over the bag. His helmet falls over his eyes as he makes his way toward home. He slides, and obviously, because he is Clay Buchholz, he gets thrown out at home.
Game over? Not quite. Victor Martinez, Jason Bay and J.D. Drew finally get the young Texan some run support when he needs it most. They rescue him from perpetual embarrassment, finger-pointing, eternal shame and a possible stint in the witness protection program.
With one rocket of a double down the first baseline, V-Mart makes everyone forget the fact that Buchholz very nearly blew Boston's wild-card lead, and the game.
Maybe this was the turning point of the season. Maybe it was the moment when the Boston bats finally woke up and decided to start fighting for something. Maybe they just needed something to rally around.
And in the meantime, Buchholz will never, ever be used as a pinch runner ever again.
