The last time the Red Sox won, it was thanks to Clay Buchholz' complete game shutout against the Baltimore Orioles. He was not quite so amazingly lockdown Tuesday against the Marlins, but he was close enough, throwing seven innings of one-run ball as the Red Sox snapped their losing streak with a 2-1 victory.
After the first four at bats of the game, it seemed like it was going to be yet more frustration for the Red Sox. Both Scott Podsednik and Kevin Youkilis found themselves robbed by good defensive plays, in a 1-2-3 first, and Jose Reyes gave the team an unwelcome sense of deja vu when he hit a hard ground ball past the bag at first for a leadoff triple.
That's where clay Buchholz came in. Two changeups with nasty breaks to Omar Infante and Hanley Ramirez give Buchholz two much-needed strikeouts, and a curveball away to Giancarlo Stanton gives him his third, and gets him out of the inning.
Mark Buehrle and Clay Buchholz would trade scoreless innings through to the end of the sixth, with Clay Buchholz picking up eight strikeouts along the way (a season high) and Mark Buehrle allowing almost no baserunners--at least until the seventh. There, the Sox finally broke through, with Will Middlebrooks getting it started by dropping a single into right field. Adrian Gonzalez could only fly out to center, but Kelly Shoppach came through, hitting a gapper to left field for the opening run of the game. Mike Aviles followed him up by working a six-pitch at bat and dropping a blooper into center to bring another run home.
Aviles' insurance run would prove essential when, three pitches into the bottom half of the seventh, Clay Buchholz threw a fastball over the inside part of the plate and Chris Coghlan hit it a mile to right field, putting the Marlins on the board.
Buchholz would pick up his ninth strikeout, and then end up handing off the ball to the bullpen to start the eighth. While Vicente Padilla ended up having an infield single and a blooper over the head of Dustin Pedroia bring the tying run just 90 feet from home, Giancarlo Stanton's fourth K of the day proved enough to end the inning, and Alfredo Aceves was able to work around a leadoff baserunner to close out the game in the ninth.
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