Red Sox News & Notes – 6/11

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz(notes), left, celebrates with Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie(notes), right, while walking back to the dugout to end the second inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning of a baseball game on Friday, June 10, 2011.

With the bad weather that was in the NYC area on Thursday night, the Boston Red Sox starter for Friday night Clay Buchholz couldn’t fly ahead to Toronto. Given the late start and the fact he’s had back issues over his past starts, there might have been a little reason to worry.

Well it turns out there was nothing to worry about as Buchholz returned to form as the Red Sox picked up their seventh straight win as they beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1. Their lead in the AL East stays at two games as they Yankees won last night.

We all know Buchholz has a beautiful 12-to-6 curveball. Well that curveball was on last night and Buchholz used it effectively. He had command of all of his pitches and that lovely curve of his set up his fastball and cutter. When he can do that, he’s almost unhittable.

He gave the Red Sox seven solid innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts. The win for Buchholz ended a string of four straight no decisions. Buchholz has not lost since April 26th against the Orioles and the Red Sox are 8-1 in his last nine starts. It was also his fifth quality start in his last six starts.

Friday night also brought the return of the Laser Show in Dustin Pedroia who had missed Thursday’s game in the Bronx after undergoing a procedure to determine the severity of the pain in his knee. It didn’t look like anything was wrong with him at all as he returned to the lineup with a 3-for-4 night adding an RBI.

The tablesetter, Jacoby Ellsbury, continued his recent hot streak of late. He added three more hits to raise his average to .316 on the season. Adrian Gonzalez also did his thing last night adding two hits and two RBIs to the cause. With those two RBIs, Gonzalez now leads all of MLB with 57 on the season.

The Red Sox starters now have gotten the wins in their last five starts. Right now, all three things are clicking for the Red Sox, the starting pitching, the bullpen and the hitting. And with that, the Red Sox have won seven straight games.

This is the team we expected to see at the beginning. We won’t even revisit the past anymore as we should solely be focused on the future.

And right now that future is looking bright like the sun.

We’ll be back in a short while with this afternoon’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. But for now, enjoy the overnight links by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

For Red Sox, all is right against lefties [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]

Red Sox run win streak to seven [Boston Globe]

Pedroia returns with a plan [Boston Globe]

Rizzo’s prospects look bright [Boston Globe]

Vita Pedroia [Boston Globe]

Red Sox no tired act [Boston Herald]

Clay Buchholz joins the Big 3 [Boston Herald]

Red Sox happy for Padres’ success [Boston Herald]

Dustin Pedroia benefits from procedure [Boston Herald]

Red Sox continue to roll, beat Blue Jays, 5-1 [CSNNE.com]

Buchholz energizes worn-out Red Sox [CSNNE.com]