Don't look now but Clay Buchholz has positioned himself in the AL Cy Young discussion. Barring a ridiculous last month and change, he won't win because C.C. Sabathia and David Price have the inside track (on better teams) but nevertheless it's been an amazing season for Boston's young ace.
Two lengthy rain delays couldn't stop him yesterday as Buchholz (15-5) and the Red Sox (71-54) beat the Blue Jays (64-59) 5-0 at Fenway Park to take two out of three in the series.
Buchholz threw six shutout innings and lowered his AL-best ERA to 2.26. Filthy. He allowed five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Shawn Marcum (11-7) pitched well (7 innings, 3 earned runs, 4 hits, 0 walks, 6 strikeouts) for Toronto but he made three big mistakes in the fifth inning.
David Ortiz (2 hits) started the three-run frame with a triple, his first of the year (but he's had one in all 11 MLB seasons). Adrian Beltre drove him in with an RBI double then Bill Hall (3 for 4 with 3 homers lifetime vs. Marcum) hit a two-run bomb onto Landsdowne Street.
Victor Martinez added an RBI single in the eighth which drove in Ryan Kalish and Ortiz made it 5-0 with an RBI single that plated Marco Scutaro.
Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts then rookie Felix Doubront locked down his second MLB save with two scoreless innings including two strikeouts.
Boston is 6.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and 5.5 behind the Rays for the wild card.
The good news is that the Seattle Mariners are in town for three games; the Red Sox won't have a better opportunity for a sweep in the rest of the season. The bad news is that it's pouring today and it's supposed to rain the next few days as well so who knows when these games will happen.
John Lackey faces Doug Fister tonight in the series opener. Seattle is miserable but they did split with the Red Sox in July at Safeco Field.
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