"It's Spring Training," Clay Buchholz said in his press conference after tonight's start.
You see, I'd say it was a game in which he had displayed blazing fastball command and decent control over his breaking pitches, at least, in the odd-numbered innings of his four-inning start...
I'd say that in the second and fourth, he suffered, and especially, his curveball seemed a largely untamed beast, a bit worrisome after it was so problematic for him last season...
I'd say that he got lucky, got out of jams, clung to a 1-run lead courtesy of a JD Drew solo homer...
I'd also add that Pedroia made some ranging plays to both his right and left. He still seems to be running to first gingerly, but he definitely seems more himself in the field...
...and that Daniel Nava played a pretty nice left field...
...and I might even go so far as to say this game got exciting in the bottom of the ninth, with bases loaded, nobody out and the game tied 1-1...
...or maybe not so much exciting as strange, as the walk-off run came on a HBP that hopefully didn't break Yamaico Navarro's hand...
...but this is, to Buch's point, Spring Training, and it's still not even mid-March. It's still mostly Remy-Orsillo name mispronunciations and pitchers working out the kinks in their mechanics and hitters swinging and missing, "getting the timing back."
It's all very Zen, if you think about it. It's the same game, ostensibly: ball, bat, glove; balls, strikes, outs and runs. And yet nothing, ultimately, has meaning. Striving is the cause of all suffering. Om.
Buchholz shrugged, standing before the TV cameras. "Everybody's working on stuff."
This team has a ton of depth in the outfield and in the pen. I'm curious to see if vets like Cameron and Wakefield are still on the team come April...
Posted by: john | March 11, 2011 at 11:55