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Clay Buchholz - Evan Brunell

Clay Buchholz tops out at 96, wins 11-1 in PawSox rehab start

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Clay Buchholz was under orders from headquarters to throw primarily fastballs in a rehab start Sunday for the Pawtucket Red Sox against the Rochester Red Wings.

That’s exactly what he did in impressive fashion.

Buchholz threw 38 of 63 pitches for strikes and topped out at 96 mph on the McCoy Stadium radar gun as Pawtucket routed Rochester, 11-1.

“(Boston) told me they wanted me to throw 60-to-65 percent fastballs, so that’s what I tried to do,” said Buchholz who worked four innings plus one batter. “I felt like there were a lot of off-speed counts where I could have thrown off-speed pitches and maybe get some swings and misses. But I stuck with the fastball and overall I felt like it worked out good.”

Buchholz, a 23-year-old right-hander, was placed on Boston’s disabled list May 14 (retroactive to May 13) after breaking a nail on his right middle finger during a May 12 game in Minnesota.

He was scheduled to throw 65 pitches and was removed by manager Ron Johnson after Garrett Jones pulled a double into the right-field corner on a 3-and-2 pitch while leading off the fifth inning.

Buchholz walked two, struck out three and went to a three-ball count four times.

The injury created problems when Buchholz threw his fastball.

“Whenever it happened it was more (on a) fastball,” he said. “I hurt it on a two-seam fastball. When I started to throw it after that, I just felt a lot of pressure on it. That was the game where I went to a lot of changeups, curveballs and off-speed stuff.

“Today and previous bullpens, it didn’t affect me at all. It felt natural and normal.”

According to Buchholz, Boston wants him to feel “natural” throwing more fastballs than off-speed pitches.

“The number of fastballs I was throwing was really low because I fell in love with off-speed stuff because I had success with it early,” he said. “But big league hitters catch on to it. They have video just like I have video. It’s easy to see what kind of routine somebody gets into regardless of if it’s hitting or pitching.

“They do want me to throw more fastballs … locate it, get ahead with the fastball and maybe the second or third time through the lineup start mixing it up and throw off-speed pitches on the first pitch.”

The Red Wings scored their run against Buchholz with one out in the third. Jason Pridie lined a 3-2 pitch off the right-center field fence for a triple and came home on Chris Basak’s flare single to right.

Besides Jones’ double and Pridie‘s triple, Rochester advanced a runner as far as second base only in the second inning. Darnell McDonald walked and stole second base but Buchholz retired Jones on a fly ball to right field and Randy Ruiz on a foul pop to the catcher.

The maximum number of days a pitcher can remain on an injury rehab assignment is 30. Buchholz will make his next start on May 30 at Durham.

If Buchholz eventually is activated, the Red Sox would have six starting pitchers. If he isn’t then he would remain with Pawtucket and bolster a team that’s contending for the North Division title — as well as fine-tune his repertoire.

“From what I understand I’ve got another outing on Friday in Durham,” he said. “I was told I was coming down here for two (rehab starts). That’s what I’m looking at right now. If I have to stay a little longer, so be it.

“But I’ll be ready to go whenever they give me the call. You can’t really wonder what’s going to happen. I’m trying to get back up there and stay there. Even if I stay here, I’d still be pitching. If I was hurt and not able to pitch at all, I’d be more upset if that was the case. In Triple A, you’re just one phone call away.”

EXTRA BASES: Pawtucket throttled four Rochester pitchers for 11 hits … Chris Carter belted a two-run homer in the first … Brandon Moss, who was optioned to Pawtucket on Saturday, slugged a two-run homer in the fifth … Dusty Brown, however, delivered the most impressive homer, a three-run blast that hit a quarter of the way up on the roof of the concession stand outside the center-field fence … Sean Danielson contributed a two-run double plus a stolen base and an RBI on a fielder’s choice.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Mike Scandura, Sean Danielson, Dusty Brown, Chris Carter, Brandon Moss, Clay Buchholz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.