Winning Streak Comes To Halt As Sox Strand Twelve (17-20)

For his second straight start,
Clay Buchholz pitched well

This streak came to an end in the way that I predicted, with Jeremy Hellickson out-pitching Clay Buchholz in a duel. The first couple of innings were scoreless, but the Rays got going in the bottom of the second. A leadoff single for Carlos Pena and a hit by pitch to Luke Scott put the Rays in a good position to score. However, Sean Rodriguez complicated matters by hitting a ground ball right at third baseman Will Middlebrooks, which would become a 5-4-3 double play ball. This put a runner at third with two outs and Will Rhymes up-- he would walk to put runners at the corners. With Jose Molina batting, Clay Buchholz balked (on a correct call), on a pickoff to first base-- allowing Rhymes to move to second and Pena to score. Molina would strikeout to end the inning. The Sox appeared to be answering right away when Mike Aviles doubled to lead off the third. However, things would go the way of the Rays tonight as the Red Sox would strand Aviles on two hard hit fly balls and a groundout.

He allowed two runs in five innings

It was in the fourth inning that the Red Sox got on the board with a two out rally. After two outs had already been recorded a Jarrod Saltalamacchia double and a Cody Ross walk put the Sox in a place to score. And they would, when Daniel Nava had a bloop into left field, just out of the reach of the diving Matt Joyce to score a run and make it 1-1. Both pitchers settled down, until the sixth inning when Clay Buchholz put runners at the corners with no outs. He was pulled in favor of Andrew Miller. Miller was pitching to Luke Scott, who hit a high fly ball to short right. Cody Ross caught it, but he misread it and allowed the run to score on the sacrifice fly. That would be the winning run and the Rays won the game 2-1.

Bright Spots:
The pitching- 8 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 9 K
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- 2-4, 1 2B, 1 R
Cody Ross- 1-3, 1 BB
Daniel Nava- 1-4, 1 RBI
Mike Aviles- 2-3, 1 2B

Dull Spots:
Ryan Sweeney- 0-3, 1 LOB
Adrian Gonzalez- 0-4, 2 K, 2 LOB
Will Middlebrooks- 0-4, 3 K, 2 LOB

Player of the Game:
Clay Buchholz- Buchholz pitched a good ballgame last night, his second straight, allowing two runs in five innings-- he is now 4-2/7.77/25 on the year.