Buchholz Outstanding - Order Restored in Baltimore
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Now that’s what you’re supposed to do against the Baltimore Orioles!
Before last night’s series opener at Camden Yards, the lowly O’s sported a Major League worst record of 15-39. They had a winning record against only one team in baseball this year – the Boston Red Sox.
The Sox showed last night that Baltimore’s 4-2 record against them was only a fluke. Boston hammered the Orioles 11-0 and should even their season record to 4-4 against them when Jon Lester takes the mound tonight against Jeremy Guthrie.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBaltimore entered the game coming off of an 0-6 road trip which cost manager Dave Trembley his job. After being outscored 34-8 in Toronto and New York, the O’s handed the reigns to thirdbase coach Juan Samuel on an interim basis.
The Sox wasted little time jumping on O’s starter Chris Tillman plating three in the first. Two of the runs came on a double to deep right center off the bat of JD Drew.
It proved to be more than enough run support for the red-hot Clay Buchholz. Buchholz shutdown Baltimore’s anemic offense by allowing just 5 hits while picking up the complete game and the shutout. With the win, the righthander improved to 8-3 on the season while lowering his ERA to 2.39.
Boston belted three homeruns in the win. Kevin Youkilis (11), Adrian Beltre (7) and Marco Scutaro (4) all went deep restoring order to a season series which had gotten off to a rocky start for the Red Sox.
In the deep and highly competitive AL East, how a team fares against the lowly Orioles may have an impact on who comes out on top of the division at season’s end. Thus far, the Tampa Bay Rays are 5-1 against the O’s, New York is 8-1, Toronto 6-0 and the Red Sox are now 3-4. If you assume that the division’s top teams will be competitive against one another, how they each do in their 18 games against Baltimore could prove to be very meaningful.
