BALTIMORE - Even he knew, as he walked off the mound, as he walked out of the major leagues (for now), what his fate would be. There was little else to do, little leeway, on a team for which every win is precious.
Clay Buchholz could have looked at the scoreboard and seen the three runs already in on his watch, with two more soon to follow, and realized that all this - the big league parks and the pressure of a season nearing its end - would no longer be his.
Not long after the Red Sox finished up an 11-6 loss to the Orioles last night in front of 33,364, a game so bad that infielder Alex Cora warmed up in the bullpen, Buchholz was called in to talk to manager Terry Francona. He would be sent down - not to Triple A - to Double A. There a pitching coach waits, one who - the organization hopes - can straighten out a pitcher who seems to have no answers this season.
"That's not good, [with] your expecta tions, to say, 'Yeah, I think I'm going to get sent down,' after each start," Buchholz said. "But the last couple starts, it's hard to think they can give me any more opportunities than they have in this stretch, especially with only a month and a half left in the season and the pennant race as close as it is now.
"You've got to send guys out there that . . . you believe they're going to go out there and give you a win or give you six, seven innings, and I haven't been doing that. So I hate to say it was the right decision, but I believe it was."
Buchholz will head to Portland after his seventh loss in his last nine outings. He will work with Sea Dogs pitching coach Mike Cather, who has tutored Buchholz at Single A Wilmington and Double A Portland. Cather, more than anyone else in the organization, knows Buchholz's stuff, and what it might take for him to return to being the pitcher he was last year, the pitcher he's been throughout his young career.
It was, as Francona said, "pretty obvious we needed to do something."
"I think we felt like we need to give him a little bit of a renewed start," Francona said. "Because it's obviously not working right now. I think we all believe strongly that it will work, but at the moment, it's difficult."
The Red Sox cannot afford to have an automatic loss every fifth day, with the Rays ahead in the AL East standings by 4 1/2 games, and the White Sox and Twins strong wild-card contenders. The Red Sox are 70-42 without Buchholz. Behind the rookie, they are 3-12.
Nothing worked last night, as the four-run lead handed to Buchholz - his third straight first-inning lead in three straight Sox losses - dissipated in just two innings. But it was more than that. There were poor decisions, such as a 3-and-1 pitch to Luke Scott in the second when Buchholz shook off Kevin Cash to throw a changeup that didn't work out.