Clay Buchholz: 'That's Not Going To Happen Again'
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox aren't getting much help from their starting rotation this season.
On Tuesday, for the fifth time in the season's first month, Boston's starting pitcher failed to make it through five innings.
Clay Buchholz didn't even get out of the third inning against the Blue Jays, the second time this season he's pitched less than four innings.
Things were looking up when the Boston offense gave him a four-run lead in the bottom of the second inning, but Buchholz would be a spectator before the next half inning was even over. He walked Kevin Pillar to start the top of the third, which is never a good way to start an inning. Three straight singles followed, plating a pair of Toronto runs. A sacrifice fly made it a 4-3 game, and the game was knotted up after the very next batter on another Toronto RBI single. After Michael Saunders singled in Edwin Encarnacion to put the Blue Jays on top 5-4, John Farrell had seen enough.
A frustrated Buchholz put the ball in Farrell's hand and walked off the mound after just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) off six hits in Boston's 11-8 loss.
"Whenever your team gives you a four-run lead, you're supposed to come out a lot better than that," Buchholz said of his third inning performance. "I went out there with the game plan to throw strikes and let them put the ball in play and get outs. Then I walked the first guy, and all the contact they made -- they hit the ball hard and it wasn't at any of our defenders in the field. I have to do a lot better job than that.
"I would have liked to have stayed in there a little longer, but that's not my call. I have to do a better job of persuading, in a way," he said. "A couple of the pitches that got hit hard, I thought a couple of them were good pitches. The others were mistakes in the zone, and that's what good hitters are supposed to do. But I'm a lot better than that. I get them again for two more starts; I'll do a lot better next time."
Buchholz said his issues aren't mechanical, "Just a couple of good pitches to hit, a couple bad pitches to hit." That just leads to further frustration with Tuesday night's results.
"You work too hard to get to a point for a game to go [that bad that quick]," said Buchholz. "It makes it suck even worse whenever it doesn't go your way. I get them again for a couple more starts. I'll do a lot better job -- that's not going to happen again."
Stop us if you've heard that one before. But even with his ERA now up to 5.76 on the season, Buchholz is hardly the only starter with issues. Boston starters have now allowed five or more runs on eight different occasions this season, and own a league-worst 6.11 ERA.
"I don't think there's a lack of work going into it. It's sort of snowballing now, and we have to find a way to stop that," Buchholz said of the rotation's woes. "We don't have a lot of luck on our side right now. Balls that are hit are finding holes, and it seems like every ball we give hit, they're right at people. I guess we have to bide our time and work harder; go after them next time."
Rick Porcello, who owns a 1-2 record and 6.48 ERA in four starts this season, will try to right the ship on Wednesday as Boston closes out their series against Toronto.
