Red Sox Live Blog: Clay Buchholz Bags Fourth Win of Season
What will be interesting to see Saturday is whether manager Terry Francona sits David Ortiz after this performance. There is a lefty on the mound Saturday. Ortiz was 2-for-2 with his two big home runs against right-hander Max Scherzer on Friday before striking out twice against two left-handers.
We will be the first to get the lineups to you Saturday afternoon in advance of the 7:05 p.m. first pitch.
Final, Red Sox 7-2: That is eight wins in 11 games and 15 in 23 for the Red Sox, who start a five-game road trip in dominating fashion. David Ortiz is the star of the night with two home runs, one a three-run blast that goes down as one of the longest in Comerica Park history.
Boston has to feel good itself after this one, and can feel great about Saturday's matchup. Jon Lester, who has won three straight, goes against the shaky Dontrelle Willis.
We'll hear what the boys have to say about this one and get back to sum things up.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 7-2: The Sox get that run right back when Bill Hall hits for Jeremy Hermida and smacks a hanging breaking ball from Fu-Te Ni for his second home run in a Red Sox uniform.
End 8th, Red Sox 6-2: Somewhat of a mixed bag from Daniel Bard in the eighth. He allowed a leadoff single, uncorked a wild pitch and then struck out the dangerous Miguel Cabrera on a killer slider. Then, Bard found himself a spot on the blooper reels.
A comebacker off the bat of Brennan Boesch also sent the bat flying in Bard's direction. The tall righty was able to avoid the bat and scooped up the ball OK, but then threw a 45-mph lob way too high to first.
A sacrifice fly gave the Tigers their first run since the first inning before Bard walked light-hitting Scott Sizemore. Another pitch by Bard got away, but Boesch hesitated before breaking to third and was a dead duck on Victor Martinez's throw. A huge baserunning mistake.
A crazy inning, but the Sox have to feel good about just one run scoring.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 6-1: I understand there are some angry and shocked Boston sports fans right now. If there is any way to salvage consolation on a night like this, the Sox are six outs away from their eighth win in 11 games, and both the Rays and Yankees are losing. Chin up, folks.
End 7th, Red Sox 6-1: Daniel Bard comes on and promptly hits a batter to load the bases, but gets out of the jam to send this one to the eighth with a comfortable margin.
9:17 p.m.: Clay Buchholz walks two more in the seventh and Terry Francona comes out with the hook. Daniel Bard is on his way in. Buchholz pitched well, but he has now walked 13 while striking out just six over his last three starts.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 6-1: Darnell McDonald is now hitting .417 (10-for-24) against lefties after a single to lead things off in the seventh. He is erased when Dustin Pedroia hits into an inning-ending double play.
Clay Buchholz is at 95 pitches as he takes the mound in the seventh.
End 6th, Red Sox 6-1: One way to tame the Tigers is to take care of Miguel Cabrera, who has been a monster for them this year. Clay Buchholz has done a nice job. Cabrera has popped up, grounded into a double play and grounded out to Buchholz. Three weak at bats yielding four outs.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 6-1: Man, the Red Sox should totally bench David Ortiz, right? How could he not hit his third home run of the game right there? Well, he was facing a lefty in Brad Thomas who was dealing pretty well. The Sox get only a two-out single from Adrian Beltre off Thomas in the sixth.
End 5th, Red Sox 6-1: That's seven straight set down by Clay Buchholz, who has done this before. He seems to need a few innings to find his groove before getting going.
Buchholz entered with an ERA of 7.71 on pitches 1-15, and a 3.23 mark thereafter.
Brad Thomas has relieved Max Scherzer. Bad news for David Ortiz.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 6-1: Kevin Youkilis made a bid for the Red Sox' fourth home run of the game, but he happened to hit it to straightaway center, which is in a different zip code from home plate at Comerica Park. Austin Jackson caught it with a leap against the wall.
End 4th, Red Sox 6-1: Clay Buchholz is used to pitching with a lead, and he's doing a nice job of it. Buchholz gets his first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth.
Since his debut in 2007, Buchholz has received 6.33 runs of support, which ranks fifth among AL pitchers with at least 200 innings.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 6-1: David Ortiz now has two multi-homer games in May, and two no-doubters in this one. His second bomb in four innings goes deep into the stands in right, but only after scraping the moon.
Just to update Ortiz's stats, his .218 average is this highest it has been all season, and he is hitting .355 with five homers in May.
End 3rd, Red Sox 5-1: Not too difficult to double up Miguel Cabrera, as the Sox do to end the third. He can hit with the best of them, but he was barely two-thirds of the way down the line as Boston completed a 4-6-3.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 5-1: Things have settled down a bit after the fireworks of the first inning. The Tigers have to be particularly pleased with that. You never want to have to go to the bullpen early in the first game of a series, and they had a man up in the bullpen with just one out in this game.
End 2nd, Red Sox 5-1: Clay Buchholz records his first strikeout of the game to end the second, during which he threw another 19 pitches.
Austin Jackson, Buchholz's strikeout victim, has now fanned 44 times in 149 at bats, tops in the American League. Good thing he's hitting over .340.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 5-1: Darnell McDonald led off the second with a single and it looked like it might be more of the same for Max Scherzer, but he gets a double play off the bat of Marco Scutaro and is quickly out of the inning.
Just to reiterate, David Ortiz's home run was the fourth-longest in the history of this ballpark. I know it hasn't been around forever, but that's saying something.
End 1st, Red Sox 5-1: The last thing Clay Buchholz wanted to do after his team scores five runs is walk the leadoff man. That's exactly what he did, and it ends up costing him a run.
Buchholz labored in the first, walking two and throwing 28 pitches.
Mid 1st, Red Sox 5-0: It appears as if Max Scherzer isn't going to right the ship against the Red Sox. It also appears as if David Ortiz may have truly overcome his issues.
Ortiz absolutely crushes a 450-foot shot to center field off Scherzer to highlight a five-run outburst in the first. It is the fourth-longest home run in Comerica Park history.
Ortiz is now hitting .333 (10-for-30) with four home runs and 10 RBIs this month.
The struggling Scherzer allowed a leadoff single to Marco Scutaro and a two-run homer to Dustin Pedroia before we even had a chance to put mustard on the dog. A one-out walk to Kevin Youkilis and a single by J.D. Drew set up Ortiz's theatrics.
7:03 p.m.: We are moments from the first pitch, and our first look at the 2010 Tigers. This marks the first time Johnny Damon has faced the Red Sox not as a member of the Yankees since Aug. 9, 2001.
6:40 p.m.: OK, so we know the Red Sox may take a back seat to the Bruins in many homes, but here is a guide to help you get all the coverage NESN has to offer.
If you want to flip back and forth, the B's are on NESN, while the Sox will be on NESNplus. To find where that is on your dial, go here.
If by some chance you want to watch the B's and stay on top of the Sox, just keep your laptop here. If you want to watch the Sox and still follow the Bruins, you can check out James Murphy's live blog.
One way or another we have you covered.
6:00 p.m.: According to reports, Josh Beckett will throw a side session Saturday in Detroit and if he feels OK will pitch Tuesday in Yankee Stadium.
Beckett was originally scheduled to start last Wednesday at home, but was bumped to Friday to get in an extra side session and try to work out some of his kinks. Then, he suffered a strained back while taking cuts in the batting cage at Fenway and had Friday's start scratched.
According to the Boston Globe, Beckett threw long tosses on the field at Comerica Park and will be in the bullpen Saturday to test it all out.
Tough game for Beckett to return. He's given up 22 runs in just 18 innings over his last three starts against the Yankees. If he returns then, it would mean that Tim Wakefield's return to the rotation would last just one start, and a good one at that.
Clay Buchholz, Friday's starter, would be in line to go Wednesday and the Sox would be back on their original rotation without a hiccup.
5:46 p.m.:The lineups are in from Comerica Park, where the Sox have had some good success over the years. The lineups are pasted below, but here is a quick analysis of the matchups as well.
Red Sox
Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
J.D Drew RF
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jeremy Hermida LF
Darnell McDonald CF
Tigers
Austin Jackson CF
Johnny Damon DH
Magglio Ordonez RF
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Brennan Boesch LF
Brandon Inge 3B
Scott Sizemore 2B
Gerald Laird C
Ramon Santiago SS
8 a.m.: Clay Buchholz will try to turn around his recent woes when he takes the mound for the Red Sox in the opener of a three-game series at Detroit on Friday.
Buchholz has walked eight and struck out just three in 10 2/3 rocky innings over his last two starts. However, he is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA on the road this year.
Struggling righty Max Scherzer goes for the Tigers, who are 12-4 at home.
First pitch is 7:05 p.m.
