The Red Sox awful injury luck went from bad to worse early in today's opening innings, when pitcher Clay Buchholz came up lame running into second base after legging out his first career hit. Buchholz hobbled around with his left leg up in the air for several moments, and it looked like the injury was serious.

But the team reports that his hyperextended left knee is not believed to be a serious injury, and he might be able to make his next start -- scheduled for next Saturday, thanks to several off-days.

"I hope so, that's what we're shooting for," Buchholz said. "We've got a couple off-days in between, so we'll ice it and treat it come back tomorrow and see where we're at."

We'll see tomorrow. Right now it doesn't feel too bad, but I think the next day and the day after is always the worst as far as muscle injuries go. Re-evaluate it tomorrow, and I'll know more tomorrow about how I feel and what they say about it.

Buchholz went into the dugout as team trainers examined him and Sox players craned their necks to assess the situation, and moments later, reliever Scott Atchison came out of the dugout to pitch.

Initially, Buchholz feared the worst. He didn't feel like he had done anything truly significant, but he wasn't sure, and that scared him.

"There was no sharp pain or anything, it felt almost like a hyperextension. That's what it felt like. There wasn't a whole lot of discomfort, it was just that in my head, in my body, I felt something pop... more scared at what might happen," he said.

He is still not out of the woods -- his day-after assessment will be important in determining whether he will need to miss any time. But for the moment, he seems, at least, to have avoided a major problem.

"We'll see tomorrow," Buchholz said. "Right now it doesn't feel too bad, but I think the next day and the day after is always the worst as far as muscle injuries go. Re-evaluate it tomorrow, and I'll know more tomorrow about how I feel and what they say about it."

Losing Buchholz for an extended period would be a massive blow to a team that just put Dustin Pedroia on the disabled list this morning. Buchholz is in the midst of a breakout year, and is on the short list in contention to start the American League All-Star game.

The pitcher entered Saturday's game with 10 wins, a 2.47 ERA, and 62 strikeouts in 91 innings pitched. He has teamed with Jon Lester to provide the Sox with two true aces atop the pitching staff, and has justified the faith the Red Sox had in him when they did not include him in any trades last summer or this past winter.

Buchholz is a fast player, and he had just stroked a single into right for his first career hit when the injury occurred. Buchholz was on first, and leadoff man Marco Scutaro bounced a ground ball to third base. Buchholz made it halfway down the line to second when he pulled up and began hopping around, and as the inning ended, Buchholz was moving slowly around centerfield.

For a pitcher who loved to hit and run in college, it was a dispiriting way to remember his first major league hit.

"I loved hitting and loved running the bases," Buchholz said. "Not doing it for five years, it's an art. And like anything else in this game, if you don't' do it and practice it every day, you get rusty. I run around the outfield chasing fly balls every day. So it was sort of unexpected to me, for something like that to happen.

He did, by the way, keep the ball.