Clay Buchholz took the mound hoping to have his first good outing of the year. He'd get the win, but a good outing he would not. Buchholz got the win, Aceves got the save, but it was an ugly win that once again showed the Sox achilles' heel of the bullpen woes.
The Sox bats gave Buch an early lead in the 2nd. Cody Ross got an RBI single followed by Mike Aviles hitting a 3 run HR. Sox lead 4-0. Buchholz gave up a single run in the 2nd on a Casilla RBI single. Sox lead 4-1. The Sox gave Buchholz two more runs in third on a 2 run RBI single from Salty. Sox lead 6-1. Sox added what would end up being a very important run in the 5th with Pedey hitting a leadoff triple with Gonzo knocking him in. Sox lead 7-1. Buchholz struggled all game long. He only had one clean inning, however for the most part he was giving up hits, but not letting them come home. I can't complain too much about that.
And then the dreaded 6th inning happened. Buchholz began the inning by giving up 2 singles and then an RBI double to Span. Sox lead 7-2. Buchholz walked Carroll and the bases were loaded. Bobby V came out to get Buchholz and the rest of the inning was the work of the bullpen. Atchison came in and immediately gave up an RBI single to Mauer. Sox lead 7-4. Bobby V came out again and Justin Thomas was in the game. Thomas gave up an RBI double to Morneau. Sox lead 7-5. Then Thomas hit Parmelee in the head. Parmelee left the game on his own power and I'll be crossing my fingers that he's okay. It looked and sounded...bad. Bobby V came out and got Thomas and Matt Albers was in the game. Albers gave up an RBI single to Plouffe and the Sox lead 7-6 still with only one out. None of the relievers yet had been able to record an out. Albers lucked into ending the inning with a double play ball. Phew.
In the 7th, Padilla came out and had himself a nice 1-2-3 inning. However, Padilla also looked like he was wincing while on the mound and went with the trainer after his inning. Ugh. Hope it is nothing serious. Morales came out and also had a 1-2-3 inning. Nice. And then in the 9th, our "closer" came out to close the game. While I have been a fan of Aceves since we signed him, I am not sure he is a closer. Aceves gave up a walk to Valencia, a single to Doumit and then hit Casilla. Aceves had two outs, but also had the bases loaded. With Span at the plate all of Red Sox Nation was collectively holding their breath. Thankfully, Aceves got Span to strike out swinging to end the game. Phew. That was a nail biter.
Red Sox 7 Twins 6 BOXSCORE
