Aug. 12 Syracuse Double Dipping
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Did the New York State Thruway double dip, today...Ottawa @ Rochester in the afternoon for the Ottawa Citizen, then hustled to Syracuse for the PawSox @ Chiefs for the Providence Journal.
And while most of my game gigs are losses (I'm almost always the road writer), today I had two winning stories to write.
Lynx making life tough for the playoff hopefuls in the IL North...scoring six runs in the fourth then holding on for a 6-5 win over the Wings...this after they'd taken three of four from the Bisons in Buffalo...
The most interesting part of the day, baseball-wise, at least, was watching Pawtucket's Clay Buchholz continue his upward development.
Buchholz is, of course, the top pitching prospect in the Bosox chain...I've seen him seven times now, five with Portland and now two with Pawtucket. He's one of those rare guys for whom every pitch is one more brush stroke on a bigger canvas.
Even those pitches that go awry, and there aren't many of them.
Buchholz went five frames tonight, and looking at most of the numbers, you'd say he really had his best stuff.
Nine strikeouts...two walks...three hits....
But not all that glitters is gold, as they say... of the nine strikeouts, one came on a wild pitch that allowed slow-footed Syracuse catcher Sal Fasano to reach first...of the two walks, one of them wound up scoring (helped in part by Buchholz's own throwing error...of the three hits, two of them were solo homers (Fasano and John Hattig)....
But all of that was put in the "so-what" file...just after Fasano reached on that wild pitch, Buchholz buckled Brian Roberts with a 94 m.p.h. fastball to end the fourth...
"It might have been a little bit down for his liking," said Buchholz, "but I got the call."
And Buchholz finished with a flourish, too...retiring the side in the fifth, he got Russ Adams to swing at a 75 mph changeup for the second out, and chased that with a 93 mph heater that left Kevin Barker muttering.
For Buchholz, it's all part of the learning curve.
"Throughout my professional career so far (all three seasons worth)," he said, "it's been the later innings that I start to feel better. I start rolling. I get that first out in an inning, and it all takes care of itself from there. That's sort of what happened tonight."
Stay tuned....
My Lynx story in today's Ottawa Citizen...
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=f184e18d-e0c8-46ef-8e39-b7be0f2a73fc
Dan Hickling
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