Written by Scott Lauber at ESPN.com
Clay Buchholz has spent most of the past decade in the big leagues. And for most of the past decade, he has come to spring training and repeated some variation of the same line as it relates to his goals for the upcoming season.
“Staying healthy,” he said Sunday, “is probably the biggest one.”
Here’s the problem: Buchholz rarely makes it through a season healthy. TheBoston Red Sox right-hander has missed at least three weeks, often longer, in each of the past six seasons. You can almost mark your calendar by it. If it’s June or early July, Buchholz must be on the disabled list, a status he has occupied before the All-Star break every year since 2010.
Last season, it was July 10 when Buchholz trudged off the mound at Fenway Park with a strained elbow. He didn’t appear in another game until Sunday in an otherwise uneventful exhibition against the Baltimore Orioles’ stand-ins at JetBlue Park and, well, it didn’t go very smoothly.
Buchholz faced 11 batters, none of whom were named Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters or J.J. Hardy. But seven of those no-name batters in the lineup reached base on three hits, three walks and an error by Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, which opened the door for three unearned runs.
Of the 42 pitches Buchholz threw, only 20 were strikes. He was lifted with one out in the second inning, having reached his pitch limit for his first spring outing.
But hey, at least he didn’t get hurt.
“It felt like that was the first time out there in eight months or so,” Buchholz said during the Red Sox’s 8-7 victory. “Get the first one out of the way and then, in five days, do it again.”
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