Lackey's Excellence Leads Red Sox to win over Rockies 5-3

Lackey claps and reacts after striking out Rockies, Tyler Colvin in the in the 4th inning

John Lackey was brilliant tonight as he led the Red Sox to a 5-3 win over the Rockies, as we won both 2 games against them. Lackey struck out 12, as he tied a career high, and pitched 7 innings, giving up 8 hits, only 2 runs, and walking none. He would earn the win to go 5-5 and lower his season ERA to 2.99, just showing more and more of who he really is and should be. The Red Sox were able to put up 10 hits and 5 runs, as the star of the lineup was Victorino who went 3-4 with an RBI. Also, Pedroia went 2-4, Ortiz went 1-2 with an RBI and 2 walks, and Nava went 1-3 with 2 RBI's. Napoli also had an RBI. Tazawa came into the 8th, giving up a home run but the score would still be 5-3. Entering the 9th, it would be 5-3 as Koji Uehara would take the mound in a save opportunity, in his new closer role. He would give up no hits and strike out 2, earning his 2nd save of the season, once again, in his new primarily role, the closer.

Lackey's outing was just great fanning 12 batters, and it gave a sense of relief for Boston, as he is suddenly a new better pitcher than he was in his first 2 years with the Red Sox. Wanna know something else good about Lackey? He threw a pitch that reached out to 95 MPH, something he never used to show back in his first 2 seasons with the Red Sox, but he was always dealing with an arm injury then.

Now back to the Clay Buchholz situation, as he is leaving Boston in many questions. On Wednesday, Buchholz's bullpen session was cut short after 18 pitches when he had felt discomfort again in his neck muscle. Later that day, Buchholz was scheduled for an MRI, or medical scan, and more will be told to us once Farrell finds out what is wrong. Right now, there is no time return, but most likely, he is going to be out until after the All Star Break. Now some may be getting worried because the All Star break is somewhat far away and isn't until July 16th, but it may be best for him to just sit it out and get all the rest/time he needs because it would be much better to have our ace in the second half of the season when we really need him down along the road, once the playoff race becomes tighter. So Buchholz may be out until after the All Star break but hopefully that is the best for him as we will hopefully be able to see him pitch along the road later this season.

Anyways, with that being said, the Red Sox will face the red hot Blue Jays who may be 5th in the competitive division, but are 8-2 in their last 10 games and only 6.5 games back of first place now. The 4 game series will be in Boston, and will start tomorrow at 7:10 PM and end on Sunday, and then the Red Sox will face the Padres in a 3 game series at home to end this 9 game home stand.

- DJ