Thank God for Penthouse Pets and Deal or No Deal floozies

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.

Clay Buchholz is settling into married life just fine

I think it sums up the 2010 Red Sox pretty well that at this moment Clay Buchholz is by far their most reliable starting pitcher.

Buchholz has always had great stuff (see: no-hitter in 2007) but we're still waiting for him to put it all together and become the front of the rotation guy he seems like he can be.

He did everything the Sox (10-11) needed last night as he went eight strong innings in their tidy 2-1 win over Toronto (10-11) at the Rogers Centre.

He's married to a woman that held a briefcase on Deal or No Deal (haha really) so Buchholz (2-2) seems to have finally found some stability in his life off the field. Dating a Penthouse Pet isn't the way to find that sense of calm, or so I hear.

He allowed one earned run on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He also threw 117 pitches and most importantly saved Boston's bullpen which badly needed some rest.

Ramon Ramirez pitched the ninth for his second career save.

Shawn Marcum matched Buchholz for seven innings, giving up one earned run on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

The Blue Jays went up 1-0 in the first when red-hot Vernon Wells drove in Fred Lewis with an RBI double.

Boston tied it in the second with Jeremy Hermida's RBI single which knocked in David Ortiz.

Mike Lowell had the biggest play of the game, a bases-loaded walk in the eighth which ended up being the deciding run (Dustin Pedroia).

Jon Lester looks to get the sweep for the Red Sox tonight, he'll be opposed by Brett Cecil.