The Red Sox will turn to Clay Buchholz to play the stopper tonight as they take on the Cleveland Indians. We'll keep you up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Progressive Field.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, Mid 9th -- The Sox fail to score any insurance runs, giving Buchholz zero wiggle room between a complete game and a tie. The worst news from the inning, though, is that Will Middlebrooks left after being hit by a pitch with one away. That's not an injury the Sox can afford.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, End 8th -- Buchholz is three outs away from a complete game two-hitter.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, Mid 8th -- The top of the Sox lineup manages a single and a walk, but Adrian Gonzalez grounds into a double play to end the threat in a hurry.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, End 7th -- Buchholz responds with three more quick outs. He's still got just 77 pitches on his arm through seven innings of work, leaving him free to aim for the complete game if he can keep it together.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, Mid 7th -- Cody Allen replaces Chris Seddon in strong fashion, retiring the side with a strike out of Ryan Lavarnway mixed in for good measure.
Red Sox 3, Indians 2, End 6th -- The lead shrinks to just the one run after a pair of errors from Dustin Pedroia and Mike Aviles let Jason Donald reach third to start the inning. Buchholz makes sure he's the only one to reach, however, keeping the Red Sox ahead.
Red Sox 3, Indians 1, Mid 6th -- One big swing of the bat from Cody Ross makes it a two-run lead for the Red Sox. With two outs and Dustin Pedroia on base with single, a 2-1 slider stays where Ross can hit it, and he launches a monster shot into the foliage over the highest part of the center field wall.
Red Sox 1, Indians 1, End 5th -- The Indians go 1-2-3 in the fifth. Through five, Buchholz is tossing a one-hitter.
Red Sox 1, Indians 1, Mid 5th -- An infield single from Scott Podsednik is all the Sox get in the fifth. Keeping in Mind that Aviles scored on a single and a groundout, it's been a bizarrely quiet night for the Sox against the journeyman Seddon.
Red Sox 1, Indians 1, End 4th -- Buchholz works around a leadoff double to hold the tie. The Red Sox need more pitchers who can avoid giving up runs immediately after the team gets them back--a curse that's been plaguing them all-too-often of late.
Red Sox 1, Indians 1, Mid 4th -- Ezequiel Carrera makes a great diving grab to rob Jacoby Ellsbury of at least one base to start the inning. Mike Aviles follows it up with a walk, however, and moves along to third when Seddon botches a throw over to first, and all the Sox need is a Dustin Pedroia single to end their scoring drought against Seddon and tie up the game.
Indians 1, Red Sox 0, End 3rd -- Clay Buchholz finishes off another clean inning with a strikeout of Ezequiel Carrera--his second K of the night.
Indians 1, Red Sox 0, Mid 3rd -- A leadoff single is wasted by a bit of bad baserunning from Ryan Lavarnway in another 1-2-3 inning.
Indians 1, Red Sox 0, End 2nd -- Clay Buchholz gets three straight groundouts to settle down in the second inning. But for that homer, he's looked quite good on the mound.
Indians 1, Red Sox 0, Mid 2nd -- The Red Sox at least get some serious contact off of Seddon in the second, but Ezequiel Carrera is able to track down the liners from Adrian Gonzalez and Cody Ross in left, leaving the Sox still without a hit after two.
Indians 1, Red Sox 0, End 1st -- And, wouldn't you know it, the top of the first sees Clay Buchholz give up a solo shot to Asdrubal Cabrera, the second batter he faces. After striking out Ezequiel Carrera on three pitches, Buchholz falls behind 2-0, Buchholz offers up a high fastball and sees Cabrera crush it well out to right-center. Advantage: Indians
Red Sox 0, Indians 0, Mid 1st -- Coming up against a journeyman lefty who has never performed well in the majors, the Sox get off to a terribly uninspiring start. Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Aviles see five pitches between them, grounding out to first and flying out to center respectively before Dustin Pedroia ended the inning with a five-pitch strikeout.