If you think it’s so easy, maybe you should try it

Clay Buchholz Photo (from Monday's game) by Joel Page/AP

So Clay Buchholz pitched on Clay Buchholz bobblehead night in Portland tonight. I’m getting really annoyed with the writers and bloggers who keep getting their cheap shots in about Clay being demoted to Portland.

Unless someone comes up with something that reveals Clay to be an ass who deserves the heaps of abuse he’s been getting, I’ll continue to be pissed by this trend. He came up quickly last year, had two great games including, for those who seem to forget, a no fucking hitter, and near the end of September he was shut down. Instead of staying in the minor league system to keep progressing the way he should have, he shot back up to the big team this year partly due to his pitching last year and partly out of necessity. He didn’t do nearly as well (which, I understand, is an understatement) and now he’s a player to be mocked? Screw that. I’m not picking on the kid just because he’s struggling. His two wins in 2007 helped the team win the division, lest people forget.

On a less cranky note, Clay threw 93 pitches through seven innings tonight, gave up five hits (and three earned runs), struck out 8 and didn’t walk any batters. He had a bad third inning, but was solid around that. I don’t care WHAT level you’re pitching at, that’s a good night’s work. (Clay left the game with the lead, but Portland pitcher Richard Lentz gave it up in a hurry and the SeaDogs ended up losing the game.)

So unless you have pictures of the kid drowning kittens or punching a baby, back off him please.

In other minor league news, PawSox won tonight and Kyle Snyder got his first save of the season! Kyle threw a perfect ninth inning – he used 11 pitches to end the game – and the PawSox now have 81 wins and, as their official website tells us, they “need to win 3 of their final 6 regular season games to break the team record of 83 wins set in 2003”.

Also, if you listened to the PawSox radio coverage tonight, you heard the radio guys mention that Kyle is six-eight…again. It cracks me up that this is brought up during every game he enters. I think they need to expand their pool of information:

“Kyle Snyder’s in the game…the tall, right-hander admits to watching ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ during the day and says he can’t wait to leave the park after games so he can get to his nightly dinner of brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts and strawberry Quik.”

That would be sweet. 🙂

Tim Wakefield is back (yay!) and pitching in Yankee Stadium Tuesday night. He’s up against Andy Pettitte, but I’m still hoping for the stereotypical Wakefield outing. Lots of baffled batters, short game, Sox win.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.