Put the plow in the ground until the daylight’s gone

I'd say Clay accomplished his mission last night.  Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

I'd say Clay accomplished his mission last night. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

The last five games the Red Sox have participated in have been won by one run.  The last SIX wins the Red Sox have behind them have bee won by one run.  (Baltimore messed things up by beating the Sox by one run on Sunday.)  I’m not sure how much more anxiety my body can take this month.  Good thing it’s almost over.

What do you say about Buchholz short of the kid knew he had to pitch well and actually DID?  I’m not surprised HE pitched well.  His last appearance was pretty damn impressive too.  It’s just a little surprising to finally see a starting pitcher this season step up so hugely when the team really needs him to.  It was suggested on Twitter last night that the team should tell Clay that Bard, Okajima and Papelbon are unavailable to pitch before every appearance – maybe that’s not such a crazy idea?  He took the pressure of knowing the team really needed a good (and preferably long) outing from him and responded with giving up seven  hits in eight innings along with two walks and four strikeouts.  He ended his outing with a career-high 117 pitches (which, admittedly, worried me in the moment) and of those pitches, 80 of them were strikes.  His performance last night defines “stepping it up”.  I only expect more of this from Clay.

Before the start of last night’s game, JD Drew was batting .286 over the last five games.  Last night he went 0-2 with two walks and a strikeout.  I’m sufficiently convinced that this means he’s working his way out of his April of suck.  I hope the rest of the team keeps up.  I think they will.  Just felt the need to give JD a shout out since he’s been taking a lot of grief online lately!

Also, I need to give Ramon Ramirez a mention.  I certainly did not feel comfortable watching him enter that game in the ninth and he gave me and many others the finger by pitching an 11-pitch, 1-2-3 ninth.  Didn’t anticipate that at all.  My apologies Ramon!

Tonight we get Jon Lester going up against Brett Cecil.  If there is any player on the Sox that I really feel needs to get off their ass and out of this funk, it’s the mad bobcat killer.  His last outing was relatively encouraging…let’s hope we get more of that tonight.

Special thanks to everyone who dropped by for the chat tonight.  You folks always make the chats enjoyable and I appreciate it!

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