You can’t get much better than Clay Buchholz these days.
The Red Sox righty has been heating up at just the right moment, as the Sox wind down the regular season into a likely playoff berth.
Buchholz tossed 6 2/3 shutout innings in Boston’s 10-3 win over the Royals on Thursday night. Buchholz now was seven wins on the season, including six straight victorious decisions.
“Yeah, he was good. No walks, eight strikeouts — he threw a lot of strikes,” Sox manager Terry Francona told NESN’s Heidi Watney after the game. “Fastball was very good, changeup, slider. The one pitch he didn’t have as well as we’ve seen in his last few starts was his curveball, but it didn’t get in the way of him getting people out.”
Impressive on the other side of the ball was the Red Sox’ gentle giant, David Ortiz. But Big Papi was hardly gentle with the bat on Thursday night as he smashed his second homer in as many nights and finished the contest with three hits and three RBIs.
“It’s kind of gratifying,” Francona said of Ortiz’s late-season success. “It’s been a fight at times for him, but he hasn’t given in. His home run was obviously a good swing and he stayed on the ball late. He kind of filleted that ball down the left field line. He wasn’t crushing it or anything, but when he covers the whole field, covers the entire strike zone, it makes him a lot more dangerous.”
Check out Heidi’s full postgame interview with Francona below:
