Clay Buchholz

With June fast approaching, the Red Sox have not had a winning record at any point this year.

But after losing eight of their first nine games in May, the Sox have won eight of their last 10. With a victory in Baltimore on Monday, they can move to .500.

To do so, they’ll need a major improvement from Monday’s starting pitcher, Clay Buchholz, whose 7.77 ERA is the highest of any pitcher in the majors. Incredibly, Buchholz is 4-2 on the year, largely due to his teammates averaging more than 12 runs a game in his starts, the highest average run support in the majors.

The Sox will need another team effort Monday night when they take on an Orioles squad that has won seven of its last eight games against Boston, including a three-game sweep at Fenway in early May.

Taking the mound for Baltimore is 25-year-old Tommy Hunter. Hunter is 2-2 with a 4.78 ERA, and though the Orioles are 6-2 in his starts, the massive 6-foot-3, 250-pound righty has struggled against the Sox. In his previous start against Boston, the Sox got to Hunter early and often, tagging him for eight hits and five runs in just 4 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. Overall, the Sox are hitting .329 in 73 at-bats against Hunter.

Baltimore enters Monday’s game atop the American League East and holds a 6½-game lead over Boston.

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Clay Buchholz

Clay Buchholz may be the Red Sox starter with the highest ERA, but he is also the one with the most wins, a number bolstered by a 7-5 victory over Cleveland in his last start. The righty tossed 6 1/3 innings, giving up three earned runs and three walks.

Buchholz (4-1) will attempt to help the Red Sox match their longest win streak of the season at six when he takes the mound Wednesday night against the Rays.

The Texas native has recorded an ERA of 8.31 through seven starts. Despite this, Buchholz has a team-high four wins. The 27-year-old last faced Tampa Bay and Hellickson on April 14. Buchholz pitched seven innings and overcame five earned runs, three walks and a home run to earn the victory as the Sox won 13-5. He is 5-2 all-time against the Rays with an ERA of 2.38.

Luke Scott is the Ray who has faced Buchholz the most, accumulating 25 plate appearances and recording five RBIs, three walks and four strikeouts. Jose Molina has the Rays’ highest batting average against Buchholz, batting .500 in 10 appearances.

Jeremy Hellickson will serve as Buchholz’s counterpart Wednesday night. Although he is undefeated, Hellickson (3-0, 2.95) has not recorded a decision since an April 25 win over the Angels. He lasted 6 2/3 innings in his last outing against Baltimore and surrendered three earned runs. The Iowa native turned in the shortest outing of his career in the start before his appearance against Baltimore, tossing 102 pitches through 3 2/3 innings against Oakland. The Rays have lost Hellickson’s last two starts.

Hellickson did not fare well the last time he took the mound against the Red Sox, pitching five innings and allowing five earned runs and three home runs. Hellickson did not factor in the decision, but the Rays lost.

He has faced Boston five times, recording an ERA of 4.21 and two wins. While seven current Red Sox batters have faced Hellickson, Adrian Gonzalez has been Boston’s biggest threat against the righty. Gonzalez has faced Hellickson 15 times, pressing the pitcher for four RBIs and four walks as well as a home run. David Ortiz has Boston’s highest batting average against Hellickson, batting .462 in 15 plate appearances. Read the rest of this entry »

Clay Buchholz turned in his first quality start of 2012. (AP)

The Red Sox have been desperate for quality starts, and no one has inspired more desperation than Clay Buchholz.

The right-hander allowed five or more earned runs in each of his first six starts of the year, posting a major league-worst 9.09 ERA and 2.02 WHIP. He’d been a mess, seemingly reluctant to use a changeup that had long been his most dominant weapon and unable to locate his fastball consistently. In six starts, he was averaging about 5 1/3 innings, and most recently, he was shelled by the Orioles last Sunday for five runs on seven hits in just 3 2/3 innings.

And so, Friday’s outing represented something of a landmark in the team’s season. For the first time all year, Buchholz managed to control the damage done by an opposing lineup, allowing the Indians four runs (three earned) on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. At the time he left the game (with the bases loaded and one out), the Sox were up, 7-1, in an eventual 7-5 victory.

Still, while he recorded his first quality start of the season, Buchholz was not dominant. Far from.

For just the second time in his career, he did not record a strikeout in a start. (The first came on Aug. 20, 2008, and immediately preceded a demotion to Double-A for Buchholz.) He allowed eight hits (six singles, two doubles), walked three, hit a man and was the beneficiary of multiple critical defensive plays by his outfielders that kept the game at bay.

Nonetheless, for Buchholz, the final line represented a potential life raft in a season where he has been adrift in unfamiliar waters. For the first time this year, he allowed fewer than five earned runs, thus snapping a string of six straight starts of such a yield (the longest by a Sox starter since Red Ruffing had eight straight starts in which he gave up at least five or more earned runs in 1925).

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Clay Buchholz

This has been a tough year for Clay Buchholz, who was tabbed as the third pitcher in the Red Sox’ rotation when the season started and was looking to bounce back from his injury-plagued 2011. He looks to get his season turned around against an Indians lineup that ranks 10th in the majors in runs scored.

Buchholz has an ugly 9.09 ERA but has received an average of 8.5 runs per game (7.40 per nine innings) from the Red Sox lineup. That has allowed him to accumulate a solid 3-1 record despite allowing five or more runs and six or more hits in every start.

In his last start against the Orioles on May 6, Buchholz had his shortest outing of the season, going only 3 2/3 innings while allowing seven hits and five runs, including three home runs. His poor effort put a big strain on the Red Sox bullpen, especially as the game ended up lasting 17 innings. The Red Sox used seven pitchers after Buchholz before using outfielder Darnell McDonald in an emergency situation in the 17th inning.

Current members of the Indians haven’t seen much of Buchholz. First baseman Casey Kotchman is 6-for-11 against Buchholz, the most at-bats and hits by any current Indians player. The Red Sox righty is 0-1 with a 5.71 ERA in three career starts against the Indians. The last time he faced Cleveland was May 23, 2011, at Progressive Field. He went 7 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs in a 3-2 loss.

Cleveland will send Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound opposite Buchholz. The Indians acquired the former All-Star from the Rockies at the trade deadline last year to bolster their staff for a playoff push. Yet Jimenez was a bit of a disappointment with the Indians, going 4-4 with a 5.10 ERA in 11 starts after the trade.

Jimenez is 3-2 with a 4.04 ERA this year, and he finally seemed to regain his form with a seven-inning, two-hit, no-run, six-strikeout performance May 6 against the Rangers, earning him his first win since April 20. He did this against a Rangers team that currently ranks first in batting average and first in runs. Jimenez will need to be equally strong against a Red Sox team that ranks fourth in runs and fourth in batting average.

Since Jimenez was a National League pitcher for most of his career, not many Red Sox players have faced him. Former Padre Adrian Gonzalez has 32 appearances against Jimenez, recording just four hits, although two of those hits were home runs. Gonzalez has struck out 11 times against his former NL West rival.

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Clay Buchholz

Following the final road trip of April, the Red Sox had plenty of reasons to feel good about themselves. The team seemed to finally be clicking as they went 6-1 while showing an ability to win both close games and offensive blowouts and evening their record to 11-11. Since returning home, however, the Red Sox are back to the slumping Boston team that has occupied the bottom spot in the AL East for much of the season. The Red Sox are 1-4 on the current homestead and have lost nine of their last 10 games at Fenway Park, a place where the team has traditionally enjoyed home field advantage.

After suffering an 8-2 loss on Saturday afternoon, the Red Sox enter Sunday’s series finale against the Orioles looking to avoid being swept for the fourth time this season. Clay Buchholz will take the mound for the Red Sox in the homestead finale, while the Orioles will send out righthander Tommy Hunter in their attempt to complete a sweep at Fenway Park.

In terms of runs allowed, Buchholz has not pitched well this season. The righthander has surrendered at least five earned runs in each of his six outings so far this season, but the team has somehow found a way to win behind him, as Buchholz owns a 3-1 record.

Buchholz pitched well through the first six innings of his most recent start, an 11-6 Red Sox win over the Athletics on April 30. He held the A’s to one run on four hits while the Red Sox roughed up the Oakland pitching staff for 11 runs in the first five innings. Buchholz unraveled in the seventh inning, however, when, with two outs in the inning, he allowed a two-run single and a three-run home run before being pulled in favor of Junichi Tazawa.

On Sunday, Buchholz will look to lower his ERA against a Baltimore team who hit well against him last season. In his only outing of 2011 against the Orioles, Buchholz took a 4-1 loss after allowing four runs on a season-high 12 hits over 6 2/3 innings. Catcher Matt Wieters has been an especially difficult batter for Buchholz, as the 25-year-old is 6-for-14 with two doubles and an RBI in his career against Buchholz. In contrast, Robert Andino has struggled throughout his career against the righthander, going 0-for-7 with five strikeouts against Buchholz.

Hunter will take the mound for the Orioles with six days of rest under his belt. The righthander had an in-grown toenail removed after his last start, a 5-2 win over Oakland on April 29, and had his start this weekend pushed back one day to give him extra time to recover. Hunter is 2-1 on the season and the Orioles have won four of the five games that he started. In his last outing, he allowed two runs on seven hits through seven innings but did not earn a decision in the Baltimore victory.

Hunter has made six starts against the Red Sox and compiled a 2-1 record and a 6.52 ERA in those games. He last faced the Red Sox on Sept. 26 last season, and he limited Boston to one earned run on seven hits through five innings in an eventual 6-3 Baltimore win. The heart of Boston’s lineup, however, has enjoyed success against Hunter. David Ortiz hits Hunter at a .313 clip and has a double and two home runs against him. Adrian Gonzalez owns a team-best .429 average against Hunter while Dustin Pedroia is close behind with his .400 average in his career against the righthander.

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The last time the Red Sox were in the confines of Fenway Park was a moment that manager Bobby Valentine aptly described as “rock bottom.” The team had just lost its fifth consecutive game, its second straight loss at the hands of the hated Yankees that dropped the Red Sox’ record to 4-10. To pile on to the misery, the Red Sox had lost in excruciating fashion, surrendering a 9-0 lead heading into the sixth inning to ultimately lose 15-9.

Clay Buchholz

Now as the Red Sox return to Yawkey Way, the mood and fortune of the team is decidedly different, as it has used a seven-game Midwest road trip to turn things around. The team has won six of its past seven games to buoy its record to 10-11 and it hopes this recent wave of success can continue as it prepares to take on the A’s in a three-game home series beginning Monday. The first game of the series pits Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox against Tommy Milone of the A’s.

Coming off back-to-back seasons in which he had ERAs lower than 3.50, Buchholz has had a rough go of things in the 2012 season. Through four starts, the 27-year-old right-hander is 2-1 but has an 8.87 ERA and has struggled with his command, as evidenced by his 10 walks to just 11 strikeouts. He has given up at least five earned runs in each of his four starts.

Last season Buchholz made two starts against Oakland, posting a 1-0 record and a 5.40 ERA. One of those starts came in Boston, a June 3 game in which Buchholz went 4 2/3 innings and gave up five earned runs. That start proved to be something of an outlier, though, as Buchholz was consistently strong when pitching at Fenway Park, posting a 2-1 record with a 3.94 ERA. Two of Buchholz’s 2012 starts have come at Fenway. Buchholz is 1-1 in those games with a 6.92 ERA. Perhaps more alarmingly, Buchholz has allowed six home runs in those starts.

Against current members of the A’s, Buchholz is relatively inexperienced, having only faced six players in the A’s lineup for a combined 44 plate appearances. Two of the three A’s players with double-digit plate appearances against Buchholz — first baseman Daric Barton and catcher Kurt Suzuki — have batted .500 against Buchholz in those plate appearances. The six A’s players who have faced Buchholz collectively have a .316 batting average against him.

Entering just his second MLB season, and first with the A’s, Milone has been a pleasant surprise for Oakland. Through four starts, Milone is 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA with 13 strikeouts and six walks. Among Oakland starters, Milone has the best ERA and is tied for the most wins.

The 25-year-old left-hander, due to his limited time in the professional ranks, has never pitched at Fenway Park nor faced the Red Sox. In 2011, Milone was significantly worse on the road than at home, as he had a 6.30 ERA in two road starts compared to his 2.25 ERA in three home starts. Heading into the 2012 season, Milone had just five career starts (all with the Nationals). Milone has never faced a member of the Red Sox lineup.

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Clay Buchholz

Baseball is an international sport, but of the many nationalities represented in Major League Baseball, only 28 players born in Australia have ever played in MLB. The Red Sox will confront one of those 28 Australians on Wednesday night when they face a young pitcher from Perth, 23-year-old right-hander Liam Hendriks.

Hendriks will be making just the seventh start of his young career, and he is still searching for his first win. As a September call-up for the Twins in 2011, Hendriks started four games and ran up an 0-2 record by allowing 16 earned runs on 29 hits in 23 1/3 innings. This season, Hendriks made the Opening Day roster on the virtue of a strong spring training in which he went 3-1 with a 2.84 ERA.

Hendriks missed his first scheduled start of the season when he was hospitalized with food poisoning, but he has pitched well in each of his two outings since, despite not factoring into a decision. In his first outing, a 4-3 loss to the Rangers, Hendriks allowed just one run through six innings of work, but Twins relievers allowed three runs in the eighth inning to ruin Hendriks’ 2012 debut. The righty last pitched on April 20, when the Twins topped the Rays, 5-4, but Hendriks exited after 5 2/3 innings with the Twins down, 4-2. The rookie struggled with his command in the outing, throwing 56 of his 101 pitches for strikes and walking two while striking out one.

Hendriks has never faced the Red Sox and has no major league experience against any of the Red Sox batters. Wednesday’s game will be the second of his career against an AL East opponent.

The Red Sox also will send a relatively young pitcher to the mound Wednesday, as 27-year-old Clay Buchholz will make his fourth start of the season. Buchholz has struggled in his return from a season-ending back injury in 2011, tallying a 1-1 record with a 9.00 ERA. In his last outing, the right-hander suffered his first loss in 12 starts as the Yankees topped the Red Sox, 6-2, on Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary. Buchholz allowed five earned runs in the outing, matching a season low, while giving up nine hits and five home runs in six innings of work.

Buchholz has allowed a combined 17 earned runs in his three starts this season, more than half of the total he allowed in his 14 starts last season. He has also allowed six home runs, a total that is way above pace for his average of 8.6 home runs per year.

Luckily for Buchholz, he will face a Twins lineup that has the second-fewest home runs in the American League. The Twins hit well overall, however, ranking fifth in the AL in team batting average.

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