HAPPY TO MOVE ON
Boston got to be too much for Buchholz
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Clay Buchholz has beaten his sword into a plowshare.
Nearly always a miscast playing his part in the theater of war that comes with pitching for the Red Sox, Buchholz has found peace and quiet on the City of Brotherly Love’s baseball team.
Expectations are more realistic.
Nobody’s going to get on his case in Philadelphia for not reaching 200 innings, for not pitching when he’s not 100 percent, for not stitching together consistent halves to his season, for not living up to that no-hitter he threw in his secondever big league start a decade ago.
He managed to win a few skirmishes in Boston, but ultimately he lost the war.
Buchholz fought with honor — he’s a good, decent person — but you and me can agree that he never evolved into that fierce SEAL on the mound so many wished for over and over again.
His new baseball life amounts to a crossing-guard posting. The change suits him. “In Boston, the pressure’s magnified,” said Buchholz before the Red Sox’ 6-5 loss to his Phillies yesterday. “It’s magnified. Sometimes it’s harder to get over that than others. You’re expected to win every single day you step out on the field and when you don’t, the blame has to be put on somebody. Whenever the pitcher doesn’t pitch as well as he can, the blame’s put on him. When the guys aren’t hitting, the blame’s put on them.”
Buchholz said he never wanted to shirk any blame, and that fans and media had every right to blame a pitcher or other player for not carrying a team to victory. And he said that any player who stays in the majors for any length of time is somebody who knows how to thrive under pressure. “I loved the pressure,” he said. But the pressure got warped in Boston.
The expectations got out of hand.
The human element, the reality of failure, got overlooked.
Too often for Buchholz’ taste, the game of baseball is taken too seriously in Boston.
“Sometimes. Sometimes it is,” said Buchholz. “We’re making a lot of money and I think that’s where it comes from. A lot of people expect players to be great every single time they go out and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they are, and they can make it look really easy. It’s not that easy all the time. That’s why this whole fresh start with me, that’s why it’s good. I’ve been around the same thing for 10, 11 years and it was time for something new to happen. “And I’m glad it’s happened.” Buchholz spoke in the Phillies clubhouse before the Red Sox bus had arrived. When his former teammates did begin to trickle into the visitors dugout, Buchholz was there to greet them all. The reunions were touching, warm and genuine. Buchholz was always well-liked as a teammate. Everyone’s always wished him the best.
“I’ve always thought Clay was on the cusp of always going to have a good year, I felt that way here every year when you watched him,” manager John Farrell said. “He has a full assortment of pitches. Maybe some of the external things — the heavy lifting, the baggage — got so heavy, he couldn’t pitch with a clear mind as frequently as you’d like to see.”
An ultimately toxic combination of elements led to Buchholz never reaching his potential.
“Just because of the way he burst onto the scene and then the way he had a first half of the year in 2013, where it was Cy Youngcaliber performance, there was always this hope that it would be carried out over the course of a full year, and anything less than that was viewed upon as him falling short,” Farrell said. “I can say this: In the years I’ve been with him as a pitching coach and a manager, he gave you everything he had. Some guys’ body types are just built for greater endurance and higher workloads than others.”
Buchholz thought he was going to wind up being sent to the Chicago White Sox in the Chris Sale trade, but as it turned out, it was a salary dump with the Phillies, who sent a minor league infielder to the Red Sox.
Same difference to Buchholz. He needed the change.
“There’s not too many people like (second baseman Dustin) Pedroia who’s going to stay with the same team his whole career,” said Buchholz. “That’s part of it. This is probably good for me, getting out of Boston in general.”
By the end, there was too much baggage with the Red Sox. Both sides needed to shed it.
“It was just that I felt like the bad times outweighed the good, but I had a lot of good times, too, in Boston in general,” Buchholz said.
“It stinks to say that but seems like more people remember the bad things that happened rather than the good things that happened. I felt like I did a lot of good things there.”
‘It just felt like the bad times outweighed the good, but I had a lot of good times, too, in Boston in general.’ — PHILLIES P CLAY BUCHHOLZ On his years with the Red Sox