Projo Sox Blog

Clay Buchholz' head must be spinning from all the advice he's gotten this year.

He revealed last week that a talk with veteran pitcher John Smoltz has helped him to manage expectations and attack hitters with confidence.

He explained today that he also owes his success this spring to one tidbit of mechanical advice he got from a coach during the Arizona Fall League

"He told me to make sure my front foot hit the ground before I wanted to explode, and that's been just the world to me, so far, from the start of spring training on to now," Buchholz said.

"It keeps everything back, instead of me going forward too soon, and it allows everything to work smooth," he said.

Buchholz is apparently taking all the advice to heart. He threw another gem today against the Pittsburgh Pirates, lasting five innings, giving up four hits, and allowing one unearned run. He struck out three. His ERA for the season now stands at a microscopic 0.66 in 13.2 innings.

He threw 70 pitches, and said he could have gone two more innings if he needed to.

The Boston hitters were just as good, banging out 11 runs against Pittsburgh pitching. The Red Sox won, 11 to 4.

Jason Varitek had a three-run home run and four RBI, Paul McAnulty went 3 for 4 to raise his average to .263, and new backup catcher George Kottaras went 2 for 2.

Jonathan Papelbon, on the other hand, let up two runs in one inning, and his ERA now stands at 5.14 in seven spring innings.

 Tags  clay buchholz Dan Barbarisi Jason Varitek Jonathan Papelbon

---