Buchholz’s majestic pitching hands Boston Red Sox victory over New York Yankees
Clay Buchholz’s astounding performance in last night’s match gave the Boston Red Sox their first victory over the New York Yankees in the new regular season series. The Boston squad are without significant players but the resolve to display strong and energetic athleticism across the pitch keeps the fans believing in their strength.
The Yankees, who are leading the Eastern Division by two games over the Tampa Rays, had lost 3 of their previous 4 games. Alex Rodriguez banged his 600th homer against the Blue Jays in the previous match, guiding his team to victory. The feeling amongst many critics was that the team had shrugged off most of their losing experience and were heading into the battle with the right mentality in the series. However, that wasn’t to be the case today as a jittery Javier Vazquez, the Yankees inexperienced pitcher, got beat comprehensively in his 5.1 innings, on the pitch. The veteran may have still been marred by his disappointing performance during the 2004 American League Championship Series between the same teams, because the performance suggested so. The player was hit 6 times and allowed 6 runs, of which two were home runs, and walked 4 while striking out 5 players and pitching 109 times.
Buchholz, on the other hand, allowed 9 hits, 3 runs, of which 1 was a home run, 0 walks and struck out 4 players. The strike zone pitcher threw 97 times in his 7.1 innings of play. The mark was an astonishing one, considering this was a match against the Yankees.
The match began with the Red Sox in the strike zone. David Oritz made the first move by banging the pitcher off for a 425 feet home run down the middle of the park to tally his total for the season at 24, bringing up the first run for the team and setting them up for battle run. Mark Teixeira followed the act up in the bottom 1st with a 391 feet homer (also his 24th of the season) down the right side, letting Derek Jeter join in on the scoring off the first base, to bring up two runs for the Yankees. The score after the conclusion of the innings read; 1 Boston – 2 New York.
It didn’t take the Boston team long to bring in more runs as they filled the bases during the top 2nd. Francisco Cervelli missed a chance to catch Lowell’s shot as the ball hit his glove and popped out on the foul side for an error. The match was turned on its head by the event as the pitcher lost his focus and the bases were filled in by the visiting team. Vazquez, succumbing to some deep pressure, walked Jacoby Ellsbury to the first base. That subsequently meant Adrian Beltre would walk to the dugout without a problem, registering a run to nullify the lead. The misery followed as Marco Scutaro would double off the next pitch to the deep left, allowing Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie to register the fourth run for the team, leading things to a 4 – 1 score for the visitors.
The last reply from the Yankees came in the bottom 5th from Alex Rodriguez as he singled to the left centre while allowing Jeter to score his second for the game, bringing the score up to date with 4 Boston and 3 New York.
The Boston team finished up their scoring tirade with Ryan Kalish who homered 411 feet to the right centre, giving himself and first base holder, Lowell, a run each in the top 6th. The match continued on as the game drew to a close and Bucholz eliminated any threat that arose from the Yankees, limiting the score line to Visitors 6 – Home team 3.
Thus, with the conclusion of the match one can’t really point who is going to come out on top in this series. Though popular belief in baseball depicts the winners being the first game heroes, in case of these two teams, things cannot always be certain. What is expected is a good Yankee fight tonight. It can be said that the dropped catch was the turning point but then again, one can never know. The question is when will the sleeping giants wake up from their slumber? It’s been 5 games with 4 losses to account for. Another century from Alex Rodriguez won’t come anytime soon. So what’s it going take? The only way to find out is by watching the game tonight
Tags: