If you're looking for fiery performances or big one-game stands, turn to Jon Lester or Josh Beckett. Both have offered shutdown games that showed again why they're the stars of the rotation.
But if you're looking for a pitcher who has turned his game around for the long run in the way the Red Sox need to turn their season around, it has to be Clay Buchholz. He's the only member of the Red Sox' starting pitching staff, in fact, who has shown he can fix his own problems and carry the team on his back.
That's also why he should be considered on the All-Star ballot.
Plenty of other American League pitchers have put up consistently strong numbers, but Buchholz has been a true star for his team in the last month. Using his own battered ERA as a starting point, he has shown firsthand what good pitching looks like by displaying it against his horrid beginning to the season.
Buchholz may not have All-Star numbers yet, but if he keeps posting these kinds of results, few in the American League will be able to say they've had a better stretch or done more for their teams than him.
It starts with how bad it began. Buchholz had the worst numbers among Major League Baseball pitchers through the first month of the season. His ERA was so inflated that fans and writers began nervously asking when Buchholz would lose his sacred cow status as a member of Boston's core and get shipped to the bullpen or minors to work things out.
Consider the figures. Over Buchholz's first six starts, he allowed seven earned runs, then five, five, five, six and five. Twice in that stretched he failed to make it out of the fifth, including his discouraging 3 2/3 innings start on May 6. At the end of that stretch, he had a 9.09 ERA — unbelievable for a regular starting pitcher by major league standards.
Buchholz took the blame with each bad start. He readily accepted that he had to figure something out.
It sounded like the right thing to say, but Buchholz looked bad. Can a guy that off in all facets of his game actually fix himself? Are six horrible starts not enough? When is a guy allowed to stick around after a month or so of allowing five earned runs every time he starts?
The Red Sox didn't have many other options, and banishing Buchholz wasn't a definite solution, so he loitered in his starting role. The rest of the rotation was terrible for stretches, and Buchholz actually had a winning record among the run-bloated outings.
On May 11, Buchholz took the mound for the first time after saying he had to fix things and pitched 6 1/3 innings. More significantly, though, he allowed just three earned runs. It was an eight-hit day, and he didn't strike anyone out, but he had found a way to keep the runs down.
Buchholz posted two more middling starts. Then he took off.
On May 27, Buchholz went seven innings with just two earned runs, striking out six. On June 1, it was eight innings — the longest of the season — with two runs and seven strikeouts. On June 7, a complete game. No earned runs. Four hits. Six strikeouts.
On Tuesday night, Buchholz stopped the Sox' latest losing streak with a defining start. He worked seven solid innings and struck out nine Miami Marlins. Scattering five hits, he allowed just one run. His record rose to 7-2.
But what may have most important about the start was how it began. The first batter Buchholz faced, Jose Reyes, drilled a pitch for a triple. With a man on third and no outs, runs were all but assured. But Buchholz — who seemed to have no damage control setting all season — found a way to use his next 13 pitches to clean out the rest of the top of the Marlins' order. The next three batters went down on strikes.
Buchholz has clearly found his mojo, but his recent outings haven't just been him recovering from a bad start to the season. He's gone beyond that. He took the wreckage of a horrible year and has emerged as a sterling pitcher. He has four solid starts in a row now, with each of them carrying a team that hasn't found solutions anywhere else. If he continues pitching like this, he will truly be among the best in the American League — not only for what he is currently doing, but in how he pulled these performances out of the gloaming after having nothing to give early on.
Buchholz won Tuesday night's game for the Red Sox, as Boston eked out a 2-1 edge in Miami. But he also showed the team that flat-out rotten play doesn't have to be the final word. If he can keep pitching the way he is — and perhaps, with that, show the rest of the team what can still be done — Buchholz could be a legitimate All-Star for 2012, his first few weeks notwithstanding.
Teammate Kelly Shoppach, who caught Buchholz's latest gem, was among those soaking up the new Buchholz on Tuesday.
"Guys get confidence and they have no fear," Shoppach said, according to the Boston Globe. "They go out there and execute pitches because they believe they can."
Buchholz believes he can. His results have fallen into line. With more like this, the Red Sox could start believing, too, thanks to him. What else does it take to make an All-Star?
