Red Sox 7, Astros 2

This game had to heavily favor the Red Sox. The Sox have the best record in the American League and Houston has the worst record in the American League. Clay Buchholz is one of the hottest pitchers in baseball winning all of his starts and Philip Humber is one of the coldest losing all of his starts. It was almost like a trap game for the Red Sox. The Sox got to Humber early and often and chased him from the game with two outs in the 5th after giving up 7 earned runs. The Red Sox were done scoring for the night after that, but they had all they were going to need.

Although Jon Lester has been pitching relatively well, Clay Buchholz has been the Ace of the staff up to this point. This was a bit shaky of a start for Buchholz as he got into some trouble in the 2nd inning after allowing a leadoff double and a single. He got the double play on the next batter and the run scored from third to clear the bases. Buchholz struck out Rick Ankiel to get out of the inning with just the one run. Buchholz got caught with a leadoff double again in the third. Another run would score on a single. After that Buchholz clamped down and cruised for the rest of the game. Buchholz was pulled in the 8th after a two out single. Buchholz's worked 7.2 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 earned runs with 10 strikeouts on 109 pitches. That makes 5 wins and 5 quality starts in 5 appearances for Buchholz.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

Buchholz didn't leave much work for the bullpen, but Miller and Bard managed to work efficiently and not implode. Buchholz handed off the game to Andrew Miller with a man on 1st and two outs in the 8th inning of a 7-2 game. Miller collected the out on 4 pitches. Daniel Bard came out for the 9th with a comfortable 7-2 lead. We haven't seen Bard yet this year after his disastrous season last year with the attempted conversion from setup man to starter. He was recently called up from the minors after Alfredo Aceves was optioned to Pawtucket. I would like to think that Bard still has something to contribute. It wasn't so long ago that Bard was a pretty good setup man and considered the heir to the closer role once Jonathan Papelbon left for greener pastures. Bard had an uneventful outing giving up one hit and recording one strikeout in his inning of work. Not dominating stuff, but solid.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

Everybody on the Red Sox lineup managed to get something going this game as every player with an at bat managed to reach base. Daniel Nava and Stephen Drew went hitless but managed to get walks. Mike Carp, David Ortiz and Salty all managed to have multi-hit games. David Ortiz managed to raise his batting average from .500 to .550 and looks spectacular for a guy who is 37 and missed spring training entirely. He'll cool off eventually, but it's great to see Ortiz off to such a strong start this season. Ortiz also nailed his first homer of the season, a solo shot in the third. It does bother me a bit that the Red Sox offense seems to show a trend of getting complacent with an early lead sometimes. They'll knock out a starter early in the game and then just coast against the bullpen for the rest of the game. I think sooner or later they're going to get burned when a team stages a big comeback. Still, a strong outing where they managed to capitalize on some opportunities to get the easy win.
HITTING GRADE: A-