Weird Haircut Clay Buchholz Continues His Reign Of Terror
The bad taste left in the mouths of Red Sox fans after Friday night’s loss was quickly washed away with the taste of excellence, thanks to a masterful performance by Weird Haircut Clay Buchholz.
It was one strike away from being a complete game shutout, but a one-run, complete game victory against the best team in the American League, who also have hit the most home runs in the majors, is nothing to shake a stick at. Buchholz is 4-0 in his last four starts, and is unbeaten since May 26, which, by the way, Buchholz allowed two earned runs over 7.2 innings in his last loss. He’s won five consecutive decisions, which is his longest such streak since he opened the 2013 season 11-0.
Since May 15, Buchholz is 5-2 with a 1.99 ERA over his last ten starts. In that ten-start span, Buchholz has lowered his ERA from 5.73 to 3.27. We’ve come a long way from, “Why the fuck is Clay Buchholz our Opening Day starter when we have Rick Porcello?” to “I can’t wait for Clay Buchholz’s next start, and why the fuck is Rick Porcello still in this rotation?” It remains to be seen if he’ll actually get the nod, but Buchholz absolutely deserves to be on the American League All Star team. And that last sentence would’ve been a tweet that everyone would’ve laughed at and retweeted sarcastically on April 12, the night that he gave up a career high 10 runs in 3.1 innings at Yankee Stadium. But now it’s true.
Speaking of Red Sox players worthy of being named to the All Star team, Xander Bogaerts was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs on Saturday. Over his last 11 games, he’s hitting .383 with 7 RBIs, reaching base safely in each of those 11 games. Going back further, Bogaerts is hitting .351 with 21 RBIs since May 31. Moving Bogaerts up to the three-hole was one of the best decisions that manager John Farrell has made all year (although there haven’t been many), as the 22-year-old is hitting .385 with runners in scoring position this season. Even more recently, Bogaerts is hitting an even .500 (13-for-26) with runners in scoring position since June 7. It’s not even a question anymore of if Bogaerts should be on the All Star team. The question now is if he should be the starting shortstop for the American League, and the answer is yes.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE SECTION 10 PODCAST ON ITUNES