The game would start very poorly for Clay Buchholz. After giving up a single on the first pitch he threw, Buchholz saw two of three ground balls hit to the right side of the infield get through for hits, leaving him in an early 2-0 hole.
The bottom of the order would scrape a run back for Buchholz in the top of the second, but once again the first ptich was a dangerous one for the right-hander. A fastball to Mark Reynolds caught too much of the plate, and the first baseman took Buchholz out of the park, undoing all of the work the offense had done to grab just that one run.
Having given up three runs in two innings, this could easily have been chalked up to one bad start-more than earned by Buchholz' recent effectiveness. The stopper, however, had different ideas, and was going to do his best to play the part regardless. A pair of double play balls would get him through the third and fourth innings facing just six batters, turning the game back to the offense in the sixth.
While Chris Tillman entered the frame well ahead of Buchholz, the Sox had done a decent job of building his pitch count, and finally broke through again come the fifth. This time it was the top of the order getting the job done, with Carl Crawford singling up the middle and Dustin Pedroia doubling him to third. A wild pitch helped score Crawford, and allowed Pedroia to move within 90 feet, which was close enough for Gonzalez to bring him home on a sacrifice fly.
After a shutdown inning from Buchholz, the Sox quickly got to work again in the sixth. Starting with a Scott Podsednik double, the Sox would put men on the corners with two outs for Dustin Pedroia. While Pedroia appeared ready to end the inning with a weak ground ball to third, Manny Machado could not make the play, allowing the go-ahead run to come in. Singles to left and right from Adrian Gonzalez and Cody Ross respectively followed, and by the time the inning was over it was 6-3 Red Sox.
Boston pitchers have had some trouble once granted leads in the past, but Buchholz would have none of it tonight, and he started the final half of the game with a little bit of history. Three pitches got Adam Jones watching strike three, three more felled Matt Wieters in similar fashion, and when three pitches later Chris Davis went down swinging at a changeup, it was in the books: nine pitches, three strikeouts, one immaculate inning. It's only been done 46 times before in the history of the MLB, making it about twice as common as a perfect game and five times as rare as a no-hitter.
Buchholz would continue on through the eighth before turning the ball over to Alfredo Aceves for a clean ninth inning, leaving them 6-3 winners in Baltimore.
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