The same could be said for the rest of the team after a long trip back from The Bronx saw the team’s charter touch down a little before 5 a.m.
Roughly 10 hours later, the Sox were due at Fenway Park to prepare to face another night of cold, wet conditions and the American League-Central leading Minnesota Twins, who had beaten their opponents to Boston by nearly 12 hours, flying in after a Tuesday matinee in Toronto.
Even at a place like Fenway, which causes fits for opposing teams, the odds were not in the Red Sox’ favor.
But there was one guy who was immune to the rigors of the road. Clay Buchholz, having been lined up to start the opener of the two-game set with the Twins, flew ahead of the team on a separate flight earlier Tuesday, as is the custom, and landed around the time his teammates were in the second inning of a marathon down in New York.
Rested beyond anything his teammates could imagine, Buchholz was outstanding, working into the ninth inning of a 3-2 win over Minnesota.
It was a clean, quality outing which sent the Sox happily to their homes in under three hours.
"Fun to watch a kid pitch like that," manager Terry Francona said. "He pitched."
Buchholz had command of his entire arsenal, recording his seven strikeouts on sliders, fastballs and change-ups. When he is on, the infielders are busy, and 13 groundouts kept them on their toes. Additionally, he walked just one man and promptly erased him with a pickoff to close the third.
"It seemed every inning, I went back out a pitch came and I got a good feeling for it and I threw strikes," Buchholz said. "That’s happened maybe once this year."
Although he didn’t say so, that other occasion was likely in Toronto on April 27, when Buchholz allowed a run in eight innings of a 2-1 win. But while the Blue Jays are free swingers who treat walks like the plague, the Twins lead the AL in that category. Additionally, Buchholz had walked 13 against just six strikeouts over his last three starts, making his controlled effort Wednesday night an even greater sign of progress.
"He went right after them," said catcher Victor Martinez. "It was great. As a hitter it’s pretty tough to face a pitcher when you got all these pitches working. You don’t know what to look for anymore."
Even the two runs that were charged to Buchholz were unimpressive. Denard Span scored both times, once after getting on base in the fourth on a check-swing grounder that went down the left-field line for a double, and again in the ninth when he led off with a broken bat infield hit and then came in when reliever Daniel Bard gave up a two-out single.
Buchholz faced the minimum number of batters in six other innings, leaving only after Span’s hit in the ninth, falling just shy of his third career complete game.
The lanky right-hander’s ERA now sits at 3.26, easily the best on the starting rotation, and he has lasted into the seventh in four of his last six starts. While the rest of the starters have been up and down, Buchholz has become increasingly reliable.
In fact, the trend began last year and it extends beyond the Red Sox — since Aug. 19, 2009, Buchholz leads all American League pitchers in wins with 11.
"I think there’s a reason that as an organization we talked about wanting to give this kid the ball and pitch, cause there’s a lot to like," Francona said. "He’s trying to get better and we’re seeing it. That’s exciting."
What is also exciting is getting home to bed at a reasonable hour. Thanks in large part to Clay Buchholz, the Sox finally can.
