Currently: Boston Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz spent the last several weeks in the minors to get some seasoning. That Buchholz needed any more seasoning is likely news to the Baltimore Orioles.
Buchholz, who pitched a no-hitter against Baltimore in his second career start last September, returns to Boston’s rotation Friday as the Red Sox and slumping Orioles open a three-game set at Fenway Park.
Expected to fill an important role on Boston’s pitching staff in 2008, Buchholz struggled to a 2-3 record and 5.53 ERA in eight starts before landing on the disabled list with a broken fingernail in mid-May. Once the 23-year-old right-hander was healthy, the Red Sox sent him to Triple-A Pawtucket, where he went 4-2 with a 2.47 ERA to earn his recall to Boston.
“He was doing good when he was here,” shortstop Julio Lugo said of Buchholz on the Red Sox’s official Web site. “Like everybody, he’s going to struggle for a while. But he’s a good pitcher.”
The Orioles (44-46) would almost certainly concur. Buchholz struck out nine Baltimore batters while walking three in his Sept. 1 no-hitter at Fenway. Five days later at Camden Yards, he threw three innings of one-hit scoreless relief to earn a 9-6 win for the Red Sox.
Buchholz and Boston teammate Jon Lester (May 19 against Kansas City) have thrown the last two no-hitters in the major leagues.
Coming off a 3-7 road trip, the Red Sox (55-39) returned home this week and got well immediately with a three-game sweep of Minnesota, culminating Wednesday afternoon in an 18-5 rout. Jacoby Ellsbury had four hits, while Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis and Sean Casey added three apiece to contribute to Boston’s season-high 23 hits.
The Red Sox are a major league-best 34-10 at home, compared with a 21-29 record on the road.
“It’s good to just win a series and also to sweep a series, and to regain our winning ways and swing the bats good,” said Youkilis, who will start at first base for the AL in Tuesday’s All-Star game.
Boston owns a 5-4 edge in the season series with the Orioles, including a 2-1 mark at Fenway.
Baltimore starter Brian Burres (6-5, 5.07) endured a terrible outing at home against the Red Sox on June 1, giving up seven runs and a career-high 12 hits in four innings of a 9-4 loss. Going deep into games has been a problem for the left-hander, who has lasted through the sixth inning only seven times in his 16 starts.
Burres allowed three runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings Saturday, when he didn’t factor in the decision of a 5-3 loss to Texas.
He’ll try to help an Orioles team which has dropped five straight games for the third time this season, falling into the AL East basement in the process. The last four losses have all come by one-run margins.
Baltimore held a three-run lead in the late innings Thursday, but allowed two runs in the eighth and a pair more in the ninth to fall 6-5 at Toronto, completing a three-game sweep. Closer George Sherrill took the loss, blowing his sixth save of the season and third in his last four opportunities.
Sherrill, Baltimore’s lone All-Star representative thanks to his 27 saves, partially blamed his recent struggles on a lack of regular work with the Orioles slumping. Thursday’s save opportunity was his first in nine days.
“It gets tough to find a rhythm,” Sherrill said. “I guess I’ll have to do a little bit more work when I have a few days off in between.”
Camden Chat
Over the Monster
