Red Sox Bats Can't Quite Back Buchholz (9-8)

Clay Buchholz was very shaky

With Clay Buchholz-- the man who started the Red Sox' last win-- on the hill, the Sox faced the Orioles today. However, Buchholz's outing did not turn out quite so well. Buchholz allowed a pair of runs to the Orioles in the bottom of the first. However, Darnell McDonald led off the second inning with a single. A groundout and two singles scored McDonald and put two men on base with just an out. Nate Spears and Nick Punto walked to capitalize on the opportunity and make it a 2-2 game. The Orioles scored three more over the course of the next two innings and Buchholz finished his outing after allowing five runs in five innings. The Sox ate away at the lead a bit in the sixth when Mauro Gomez singled in Tony Thomas to make it 5-3. The Orioles scored one off Mark Melancon in the bottom half to put them up 6-3, however. The Sox scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the pitcher's shortcomings. However, the game was ended by some nice pitching by Matt Albers.

Bright Spots:
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- 1-2, 1 walk
Daniel Nava- 2-2, 1 run, 1 RBI
Darnell McDonald- 3-3, 1 run
Lars Anderson- 1-2, 1 run, 1 walk
Jason Repko- 1-3, 1 RBI
Nate Spears- 0-1, 2 walks

Dull Spots:
Clay Buchholz- 5 innings, 7 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
Mark Melancon- 1 inning, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout
Jose Iglesias- 0-3, 2 strikeouts, 4 left on base
Mitch Dening- 0-2, 1 strikeout, 1 left on base