This was no piece of cake. A no-hitter is not just handed to you on a silver platter. It takes focus, spectacular pitching and great defense.
Rookie Clay Buchholz had all three when he led his Boston Red Sox in a 10-0 blanking of the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night.
The 23-year-old righty -- pitching in just his second career big league game -- threw an assortment of fastballs, changeups and a pretty nasty curve for 115 pitches. He struck out nine and walked three in the 17th no-no in Red Sox history to lower his ERA to 1.80 and better his record to 2-0. Awesome. How's he supposed to follow that up?
Let's not forget the 6th-inning pickoff of the sneaky Brian Roberts (39 SB) at first, which had the crowd going nuts already.
"It's amazing. That's all I can say," he said. "I'm in a blur right now.Opposing pitcher Garrett Olson lasted only 5.1 innings, in which he walked five and surrendered 4 earned runs on 7 hits with 4 strikeouts.
Coco Crisp kicked off the scoring with a forceout in the second that sent Kevin Youkilis home and David Ortiz smoked a 3-run double in the fourth to make it 4-0.
This is where the newly acquired porn star by day/pitcher by night, Rocky Cherry comes in. He could only get one batter out, but managed to give up four runs of his own with 3 hits and a walk. Mike Lowell had an RBI double off him before Youk blasted a 3-run bomb to chase Cherry off the hill altogether. Another Orioles reliever, Brian Burres tried to clean up the disaster area, but gave up a pinch-hit double to rookie sensation Jacoby Ellsbury, instead. The 23-year-old lefty is batting .350 with 3 RBIs and a stolen bag in his 8 games with Boston this season.
The 81-55 Sox now lead the AL East by 5 games over the New York Yankees. The two clubs won't see eachother again on the road to the post season until September 14th when they open a three-game set at Yankee Stadium.
[The Boston Channel]
2 comments:
What a game.
"How's he supposed to follow that up?"
With a win.
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