ARLINGTON, Texas -- For all justified concerns about the Red Sox' starting rotation of late, Clay Buchholz is exempt.
Since May 27, Buchholz has made eight starts, and in that span, has given up more than three runs just twice. On Tuesday night, with the Sox in desperate need of a win -- having lost four straight and dropped below .500 -- Buchholz gave the Sox seven strong innings, limiting one of the two best lineups in the league to a single run.
Buchholz didn't qualify for the win -- the Sox got a go-ahead RBI single from Mike Aviles in the top of the ninth in a 2-1 victory over Texas -- but that didn't detract from his outing.
"Buchholz was fantastic," gushed Bobby Valentine. "Clay was super. His changeup, his cutter, his fastball, his control . . . outstanding. And his guts. He kind of ran out of gas there in the middle of the sixth but he still gave us the rest of the sixth and the seventh. He was on fumes and guts and did a great job getting us through."
He blanked the powerful Texas lineup for the first five innings before yielding a solo run in the sixth.
After a double by Elvis Andrus, Buchholz had a wild pitch break off the glove of Kelly Shoppach, sending the baserunner to third. A squibber off the bat of Josh Hamilton, just to the right of the mound, scored Andrus with the only Texas run of the night.
"I think every starter goes out there with the same thing in mind," said Buchholz, "and that's try to go out there and try to pitch as deep into the game as you can and try to give your team a win. That's a tough team to score against and a tough team to hold down out there, too, so it's a really good thing we came out with a win tonight."
Boston Red Sox
If the Texas lineup wasn't imposing enough, there was the weather, with temperatures above 90 degrees long after the sun went down.
"It was definitely hot, definitely humid," said Buchholz. "In between the innings, I felt that more than when I was out there. I felt like I could still reach back and throw it when I needed to. For the most part, I was able to miss a couple of bats. They have a ton of guys who can hit the ball out of the park at any time, so that's the toughest part of pitching to a team like this -- keeping guys off base and letting the big outs happen."
Texas didn't get any baserunners in scoring position against Buchholz until Adrian Beltre doubled with one out in the fourth. But Buchholz got Michael Young on a comebacker to end that threat, then bailed out of a first-and-third jam an inning later when Craig Gentry hit into an inning-ending double play.
For the first two months, Buchholz seemed to still be struggling with the after-effects of his lower back stress fracture from last summer. But now, he's settled in.
"It didn't start out the way I would have liked or how the team would have liked," said Buchholz. "But I sort of put it into perspective, to (try and) go out after the All-Star break and pitch as good as I can and keep the team in the game as much as I can.
"Bad starts are going to happen, but if you can minimize them . . . that's how I'm looking at it."