Six Is Not Enough

A sweep of the Texas Rangers was not meant to be on Thursday night, as Clay Buchholz pitched six solid innings, allowing just two hits.

But Texas got to him for three runs in the seventh, and the Red Sox bats were stymied all night by C.J. Wilson and the Rangers pen and the final was 3-0. Buchholz struck out ten, a career high. But the run support wasn't there last night.

Buchholz struggled in his first starts and appeared to be a candidate to move to the bullpen, with Daisuke Matsuzaka returning to Boston shortly. But the decision has been made to move Tim Wakefield to the long man role in the pen. (I would guess that would make Scott Atchison the odd man out, but we'll see what the Sox do when Dice-K is activated.)

The bullpen threw two more scoreless innings (Ramirez and Schoeneweis) last night, and was terrific in the Texas series. They look miles better since the first awful week of the season.

Terry Francona announced yesterday that Jacoby Ellsbury has four hairline fractures of his ribs, after the collision with Adrian Beltre on April 11th. (Is it me or did it take the Sox crack medical staff an awfully long time to make that diagnosis?)

The Red Sox trail the Tampa Bay Rays by six games and are at 6-10. Look on the bright side: the 2-14 Baltimore Orioles are in town for three games.

And guess what? Slappy's in the middle of controversy. Yet again.