A rare scheduled day off for the Red Sox led to a busy day for Clay Buchholz on Thursday before his expected start against the Blue Jays on Friday night.
He handed out tickets to some lucky customers at a few Bank of America locations around Boston and also appeared on the Dennis and Callahan Show on Thursday morning.
When asked if he was surprised to see John Lackey skipped in the rotation due to Wednesday’s rainout, Buchholz admitted he was a bit taken aback.
“A little bit,” Buchholz said. “Lackey is that guy on our team that has been around a while — him and [Josh] Beckett both — usually that’s the guy you’ll run out there to get out of a jam. I don’t know the whole reasoning behind it.”
Buchholz also believes that there is one player in particular that could bring the Red Sox around once he finds his groove in Boston.
“When Carl Crawford starts doing what he does, and that’s what everyone knows he’s going to do when he gets going,” said Buchholz. “When he gets on base, running around, causing havoc on the bases, I think that’s going to be our one thing and it’s going to feed down to everyone else.”
For his own performance, which includes a 7.20 ERA over two starts, Buchholz thinks it is all about location, location, location.
“I think I’m just throwing a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate, and that’s where the hitters want it,” Buchholz said. “They want it middle so they can square it up and hit it hard somewhere. That’s what I’ve been doing at least.”
Buchholz will have a chance to improve upon his current ERA on Friday night when he squares off against Brett Cecil and the Blue Jays at Fenway Park. First pitch is 7:10 p.m.
