Baseball Musings: Clay-Nation

September 01, 2007

Clay-Nation

Clay Buchholz is treating the Fenway faithful to a fantastic game tonight. He just completed his eighth inning of work without allowing a hit. He walked three tonight, striking out seven. He's at 102 pitches, but I think limits are out the window tonight. With an 8-0 lead, the Red Sox will let him go until his name enters the record books or he allows a hit.

Update: Buchholz comes out for the ninth, and the top of the lineup is due up, Roberts first.

Update: Twice Roberts swings at high heat, and twice he misses as he goes down on strikes. Patterson up.

Update: Patterson hits hard liner on a 2-1 pitch to centerfield, but it stays up long enough for Crisp to catch it. One to go, Nick Markakis.

Update: Markakis strikes out, frozen on the second beautiful curveball of the at bat. Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in the second start of his career!

Update: Jerry Remy pointed out that Clay did a good job of mixing up his pitches tonight. He'd throw change-ups in fastball counts and was able to locate all his pitches. If you just go back and watch the ninth, you saw him get batters on fastballs, change-ups and curveballs. That's three plus pitches for the youngster, and a game that will be tough to top.

Update: Bob Holloman threw a no-hitter in his first start, and Wilson Alvarez did it in his second start. That's it for earliest no-hitters.

Update: Bob Shvodian sends this note:

Tonight Sox 2B D. Pedroia saved rookie C. Bucholz's no hitter with a diving stop and quick throw to nip M. Tejada at 1B. 51 years ago in 1956, Sox 2B Billy Goodman saved Mel Parnell's no-hitter with a diving catch of a liner headed to the outfield.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:46 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Holy cow he did it! Man what a performance. And hats off to the Orioles for not bunting in the 9th. That showed a lot of class. Buckholtz is the future of the Sox.

Posted by: emains at September 1, 2007 10:19 PM

Gotta give credit to Varitek too, he wasn't shaken off the whole game.

Posted by: Jacques at September 1, 2007 10:34 PM

Holloman did it in his first start, but he had had several relief appearances before that. Alvarez had had just a single start in which he retired no batters and gave up three runs, thus starting his no-hitter with a career ERA of infinity. Buchhulz also had just a single major league appearance, six strong innings on Aug. 17.

Posted by: Tor at September 1, 2007 10:57 PM

Sox 2B D. Pedroia saved this no-no with a great diving stop and quick throw to nip M. Tejada at 1B.
For memories, 51 years ago Sox 2B Billy Goodman saved veteran Mel Parnell's no hitter with a diving catch of a liner headed for CF. Parnell retired after that year, probably second best Sox lefty to Lefty Grove.

Posted by: Bob S at September 1, 2007 11:16 PM

The Baltimore Orioles were the last team in the majors to be shut out. It took a no-hitter but finally all of the teams have been shut out at least once.

Posted by: wayne at September 1, 2007 11:51 PM

I can't believe the BoSox let him throw 115 pitches in only his second start. Granted, Clay got the job down. You'd have to figure if Clay gets injured down the road second guessing will come left and right...

Posted by: Tan The Man at September 2, 2007 12:15 AM

Not bunting shows class? Maybe they just didn't think they could bunt for a base hit. I remember a couple years ago someone on the Padres (I think it was Ben Davis) bunted late in the game to break up a Curt Schilling no-hitter, and Schilling was peeved. WTF? Is the opposing team supposed to roll over and just stop being competitive? The last time I checked, bunting was a legitimate part of the game, but it wasn't some kind of magic bullet that guarantees a hit, either. I mean, if a guy bunts, most of the time they can throw him out unless he's Juan Pierre or Jose Reyes. And if he does bunt for a hit, well, good for him.

Posted by: Adam Villani at September 2, 2007 03:39 AM

After allowing the 30 runs to the Rangers, the O's make history again. BTW, you mentioned Wilson Alavarez. In his second start he beat the O's in 1991.

Posted by: soccer dad at September 2, 2007 04:58 AM

The Schilling game was still competitive, I think his team was only up by 2 or 3 runs so getting on base was still essential. I think Schilling was out of line on that one. The Orioles had no chance to get back in the game, so I have to agree that a bunt would have been tacky.

Posted by: JeremyM at September 2, 2007 09:33 AM

Hollomon, Schmolloman. In 1892 Bumpus Jones threw a no-hitter in his first major league GAME, on the last day of the season, no less. He also holds the record for the latest no-hitter in a season, since the day of the month was later than Don Larsen's.

That was also the last season before the pitching distance was increased to 60' 6", so he has the honor of the last no-hitter pitched at less than 60 feet. Unfortunately for him, he failed to adjust to the new distance, and in 1893 went 2 -4 with a 10.19 ERA, so in his 41 2/3 inning career he actually gave up more than a hit per inning.

I'll go out on a limb here and predict Buchholz will win more games in his career than Bumpus Jones. (They're currently tied.) He should also win more than Holloman, who won three in his career.

Posted by: Syd Henderson at September 2, 2007 07:32 PM

Re: the bunting in Schilling's one hitter. If you go back and read the story's on that you will find it was Melvin (I think he was the manager) who was pissed. It was the same situation as last night's game in that both the first and third basemen were playing at normal or no doubles depth.

Posted by: s1c at September 2, 2007 08:11 PM

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