Buchholz Lifts Red Sox Past O's 2-1
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz kept up his scoreless spring against the Baltimore Orioles.
Buchholz threw four scoreless innings and Boston beat an Orioles split squad 2-1 on Wednesday night.
Buchholz allowed four hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
"It felt pretty similar to last outing," Buchholz said. "I went out and did what I wanted to do in the first inning, and sort of got a little out of whack in the second, third and, fourth. But battled in some tough spots tonight with getting some runners on with less than two outs, and being able to get some contact at some guys, and get out of it."
Buchholz spoke to WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jonny Miller in Fort Myers.
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Buchholz has not allowed a run in three Grapefruit League games spanning nine innings this spring.
"It was nice to see him pitch well but also pitch out of the stretch and pitch with some runners on base and continue to make his quality pitches," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "I thought he looked terrific."
Boston earned the win when Yamaico Navarro was hit on the left wrist with the bases loaded in the ninth inning by Wynn Pelzer to score Josh Reddick. Navarro sustained a contusion.
Tony Pena (2-0) got the win, pitching a perfect ninth inning.
Right-hander Ryan Drese, vying for a spot in Baltimore's rotation, went three innings, giving up one run and three hits and a walk with one strikeout.
"I felt good," Drese said. "My sinker, I didn't get it down in the zone as much as I wanted to in the first inning or so. The third inning, I started feeling really good. I started getting on top of the ball better and locating the ball down. That's where I wanted to be."
The run Drese allowed came on J.D. Drew's second-inning solo home run to right-center, his first of the spring.
"Honestly, the ball that J.D. Drew hit was just middle-middle," Drese said. "It was right down the middle and he hit it. I just didn't get the ball down. Other than that, I thought (Jason) Varitek hit his ball (a double) OK, not great. Other than that, I was just trying to work the ball down."
Orioles manager Buck Showalter was satisfied with Drese's outing.
"I think Drese held together," Showalter said. "He elevated his sinker and got out of it with only one run."
The Orioles scored their run in the eighth inning when Joe Mahoney tripled off Randy Williams and scored on Robert Andino's sacrifice fly.
"We had a lot of opportunities," Showalter said. "We should have pushed more than one run across."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
