How good is Clay Buchholz? For the past few weeks, I've been calling Buchholz and Lester the best duo in baseball. And while that may be a bit too ambitious to say right now, they're certainly working their way straight toward that title. With 6.2 shutout frames from Buch, the Sox capped off a 3-0 series victory with a 2-0 win on Father's Day. With the win, Buchholz (10-4, 2.47 ERA) moves into a tie for the league lead in wins with David Price and Phil Hughes -- all three pitchers in the AL East.
This is a Red Sox squad that is clicking on all cylinders right now. When the offense has a fairly quiet game -- like tonight -- the pitching and defense has come up big. When the pitching and defense is subpar -- such as their 4 errors on Friday -- the offense comes alive for 10 runs. They've moved into a tie with Tampa Bay for 2nd place in the division, and they trail the Yankees by just 1 game for the lead. After that brutal start, things don't seem so bad anymore.
And when you add in the fact that they've been so injury-ridden all season long, it makes it that much more impressive and promising. The catalyst to their offense on the base paths, Jacoby Ellsbury has played in just 9 games this season due to rib injuries. Former ace Josh Beckett has been on the DL for quite some time, as has former 18-game winner Daisuke Matsuzaka. Center field has been anything but a guarantee from a day to day basis, given that Mike Cameron has suffered several different injuries sidelining him for weeks at a time. It has been a lot of patchwork for Terry Francona and the Red Sox, but here we are -- approaching the last week of June, and the Sox are right there at the top of the hunt.
Will their success continue? Who knows. But the play we've seen in the last week or so is the play that we will hopefully continue to see moving forward. If that happens, you can count on seeing the Sox play well into October once again.
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