Close but not quite

(Photo from Yahoo! Sports)

Life has got to be pretty frustrating for Clay Buchholz right now. You gotta figure he came up last year, threw a no-hitter in his second ever major league start and assumed he had this pitching thing in the bag. But then he got the world's most complicated hangnail and was sent down to the minors for seemingly endless rehab starts and he had to start thinking that he was being replaced. Every time an opportunity arose for him to rejoin the big club, there was some reason he couldn't. And then Jon Lester became the go-to young pitcher and threw his own no-hitter, plus everyone seemed to like him a little more and now he's the stopper and Little Claybelline just can't catch a break.

Sure, there was that thing where his dad told Howard Stern or whomever that Clay was sleeping with a Penthouse Pet but really, that was just weird. And not so much about the baseball. And Jon Lester is engaged now anyway so probably everyone is out buying him place settings and food processors and espresso machines and now Clay doesn't have anyone to play Wii Mario Kart with.

Buchholz probably figured this erratic pitching was a phase and he'd snap out of it but now he's winless in his last seven starts and despite a shaky beginning from Royals' starter Gil Meche last night, it was Meche who eventually settled down and the Sox took a loss.

And Clay Buchholz is sad.

Normally, I'd tell Buchholz to trust in 'Tek since that seems to be the cure for what ails most young pitchers (and sometimes older ones, Curtis). But he probably feels like 'Tek doesn't have time for him right now what with him painting the nursery for the Papel-fetus and purchasing outlet covers and Diaper Genies. ("No, Jonathan, it's not actually a magical genie. It's just a diaper pail called...you know what? Never mind.")

So maybe Buchholz just needs to be surrounded by some good pitching? Sure, why not? Lester certainly did his part in his last start so tonight it's up to Beckett, who has had his own problems of late. So...time to sack up and show Claybelline how it's done? Thought so.