With virtually no bullpen to speak of and question marks swarming the starting rotation, Buchholz provided the club with its best start of the season and the gutsiest outing of the young right-hander's career in a 2-1 win over the Blue Jays.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona had said before the game he would steer clear of the big guns in the bullpen after each of them were used in a 13-12 slugfest in Monday’s series opener. With Buchholz in fine form and able to throw 117 pitches, the skipper never needed to reconsider.
"There actually isn't. I'd like to try," Francona said when asked for words to describe Buchholz's outing. "He was tremendous."
Just 25 and still yet to throw a full season, Buchholz is no stranger to dominant outings. The no-hitter in his second career start in 2007 immediately comes to mind. He has also gone at least eight innings on two other occasions and struck out a career-high 10 just five days ago. But Tuesday saw Buchholz, for the first time in his career, put the club on his shoulders and carry it to the finish line.
He showed he was worthy of handling the load in the eighth, protecting a lead the Sox had just taken in the top half of the inning.
Having already thrown over 100 pitches, Buchholz gave up a chopper to Vernon Wells that third baseman Adrian Beltre chucked down the first-base line, allowing Wells to reach second. The tying run was in scoring position and Lyle Overbay, who entered hitting .429 off Buchholz, was up. The Red Sox righty froze Overbay on a fastball which tailed over the inside part of the plate and was out of the inning moments later on a fly to center.
Buchholz's night was done after he recorded 80 strikes in a season-high 117 pitches, an extremely high number at this stage of the season, especially on a team which handles such situations with kid gloves.
"I looked over at the dugout a couple of times and thought [Francona] might come out because I glanced up at the board and saw I was over 105 pitches," Buchholz said of the eighth-inning scenario. "I'm glad he left me in. I felt good and felt that I had more in the tank."
Buchholz had plenty more in the tank, according to Francona.
"In the eighth, we give him the opportunity where we throw the ball away in a crucial time in the game and he probably makes better pitches than he had all night," Francona said.
To illustrate just how fragile the support system was Tuesday night, the only man to get up in relief of Buchholz was Ramon Ramirez, who had blown a chance at his second career save just two days earlier and entered with an ERA of 7.56.
But with a perfect ninth Ramirez had finished what Buchholz started and the Red Sox had their sixth win in eight games. They also had a renewed confidence in Buchholz, who showed what he's made of when the club needed it most.
