Back on track: Clay Buckholz's better than Schilling

So, the Red Sox went into Saturday Night's game having lost four in a row. I missed the begining of it, because my friend Jose and I went to see the Boston College Eagles defeat the defending ACC Champion Wake Forest Demon Deacons (what a silly name). Afterwards we went to his house and turned on the tv and booted up the computer to check the box scores on what we'd missed. Jose told me "The Sox are up 1-0. Crisp drove the run in. Buckholz has a no-hitter through two and a half. That doesn't mean anything." We met up with Jose's friend Andre and went to the super market after the fifth to get burgers to grill, listening to the game on the way. When we got back to his house, the Orioles still hadn't going into the 7th. And for the most part, Buckholz seemed unhittable. Jose's brother went and fired up the grill and kept asking us when we were going cook the burgers, but we kept waiting. Andre said it was gonna end up like Schilling. Jose told him he couldn't say that until after the game.

The ninth inning went relatively smoothly. First batters were retired in routine fashion. That brought up Nick Markakis. On a 1-2 count, Buckholz threw a pretty nasty off speed pitch- looked like a curve to me but the Rem Dawg kept saying the pitches that looked like curves to me were actually changeups (most movement I've ever seen on a changeup)- which Markakis took. "Strike Three" I declared. It started above his belt and was caught below his knee over the heart of the plate. Clearly a strike. I mean, I don't know how anyone could think any differently. If it starts above the belt, crosses the plate, and ends up below the knees, it has to have gone through the strike zone. The Home Plate Umpire took a few seconds, and just looked. He soaked it all in, the atmosphere, Fenway Park, sold out as always, rookie pitcher in his second career start, officially one strike away from a no-hitter. Then he stood up and raised his fist to confirm what I already knew. Strike Three.

The hoopla that follows no-hitters is always interesting. It looks like the team just won the World Series. But this was particularly interesting. After they got done jumping up in down in a Royal Rumble type looking thing, they all took turns shaking Buckholz hand. Beckett was in line right before Curt Schilling. I think Schilling must have pissed off Josh because he grabbed Buckholz and started screaming "BETTER THAN SCHILLING'S! MUCH BETTER THAN SCHILLING'S!" Maybe once or twice to Clay, but like 57 times to Curt, who quickly shook Clays hand and turned to go back to the Club house with an ecstatic Josh Beckett on his heels still shouting "BETTER THAN SCHILLING'S!"


The Yankees won, so they're still five games behind the Red Sox. But more importantly, the Red Sox win coupled with the Yankees beating Tampa Bay puts the Devil Ray's elimination number in the AL East down to 1. One more Red Sox win or one more Devil Ray loss means they are eliminated from the AL East Division Race. I don't know about you, but I'll sure sleep alot better knowing the pesky Devil Rays are eliminated.