The Red Sox Real Ace
Who is the ace of the starting rotation for the Red Sox? I thought it was going to be Josh Beckett, but he’s been pretty awful his last two starts. Jon Lester is finally coming out of his annual April slump, but for a while there he was pitching pretty bad too. What about the new guy, John Lackey? Kind of hard to be called an ace when you have an ERA of 5.09 and you give up ten hits to the lowly Baltimore Orioles. With these three out of the equation there is only one pitcher who can be considered to be the ace of the Red Sox. Clay Buchholz.
Ace Buchholz?
Look at the numbers in the early going and you have to agree that Buchholz is the ace of this staff. A 2.19 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched so far this season, but it was his last start in Toronto that gave us a perfect example of how far Buchholz has come. Buchholz gave an overworked bullpen some much needed rest. Terry Francona needed him to “get some length”, and Buchholz delivered with eight innings and 117 pitches of one-run baseball. Like an ace, he also knows how to throw the right pitch at the right time, especially to Toronto’s Lyle Overbay. Buchholz explained his approach to Overbay on MLB.com: “Overbay is a guy who hits me better than anybody I’ve ever faced, and I was able to throw a four-seamer in there to strike him out.” A simple strategy, but sometimes all you need is a good fastball to get out of a eighth inning jam.
A pitcher who was once known to have not only a really good change up but also mediocre fastball, Buchholz now effectively mixes a devastating breaking curveball with a fastball that registers in the mid 90s. With his new repertoire of pitches, Buchholz can be the real ace of the Red Sox.
For more mildly biased commentary about the Red Sox by John, check out his blog The Lansdowne Lowdowne. Follow him on twitter @lansdownelow and Facebook
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