Red Sox Will Wait And See With Buchholz Injury
BOSTON (CBS) -- Clay Buchholz was pitching very well heading into Boston's weekend series against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park.
A winner of four straight decisions, Buchholz was pitching like an ace. He was coming off his best outing of the season, holding the Houston Astros to just one run in a complete game effort, and poised to improve Boston's playoff hopes as they hit the All-Star break.
But with Buchholz, there is always that concern that one pitch could send everything off the rails. That's what happened Friday night, as Buchholz left his start in the fourth inning with a flexor strain in his elbow. He was placed on the disabled list on Saturday, and is being shut down until the discomfort goes away.
Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Monday morning, and said the Red Sox are in "wait and see" mode with Buchholz at this point.
"They're just shutting him down and waiting to see how things go," said MacPherson. "His elbow is still sore and at this point, they're just going to wait it out. They haven't set a number of days they'll wait it out, but I would assume through the [All-Star] break and beyond. This is going to be a minimum two week thing before they start getting him throwing again and see how he does with that."
Many fans had hoped the Red Sox would cash in on the first-half success of Buchholz, who is now 7-7 on the season with a 3.26 ERA, and traded the veteran starter while his stock was high. But MacPherson said that wasn't in the cards because the Red Sox still saw themselves as contenders.
"[A trade] makes sense, but there are two things with that: One, if you're trying to content, and when he was at his best a week or two ago they were trying to contend, trading him basically says they're not trying to contend anymore. And two, teams know his injury history as well so that plays into it. That plays into any offer you're going to get," said MacPherson. "It's easy to say [trade him], and if they had gotten an offer from a team who was desperate for pitching they would have thought long and hard about it. But Ben Cherington was always going to be reluctant to sell until the last minute, and it would have been out of character for him to move Clay Buchholz in late June, early July."
MacPherson also talks about the David Ortiz situation from Sunday and Boston's playoff odds after dropping two of three to the Yankees:
