Empyreal Environs

With the bullpen in tatters thanks to an extra-inning game, a previous rain delay, and poor starts, Terry Francona had to take extreme measures. He had Clay Buchholz return to the mound after a two hour and seven minute rain delay.

Buchholz had looked sharp through the first two innings. The only baserunners were Justin Morneau in the first, who reached because of Marco Scutaro’s leisurely handling of a ground ball, and Michael Cuddyer in the second, who reached on an error by Jed Lowrie.

During the delay Buchholz kept limber by playing catch with Jarrod Saltalamacchia and getting stretched out by trainers. When the teams got word that the game would restart at 4:00 p.m. Buchholz finished up his second warm-up with long toss and bullpen sessions.

Buchholz’s efforts were extended by shutout innings by a quartet of relievers and a surprisingly adequate offense. Lowrie drove in Jacoby Ellsbury, who was at second base with a wall ball double, in the first inning. After the delay Adrian Gonzalez smacked a ground-rule double to right and scored on a ringing single off the Monster by Kevin Youkilis. In the eighth Ellsbury shot a single up the middle with the bases loaded and two out to plate two more runs.

As impressive as Buchholz’s performance was another Boston athlete rightfully dominated the news. Facing the possibility of falling 0-3 in the series with the Miami Heat the Celtics hoped that a return to the Garden would revitalize their playoff run. With 7:02 left in the third quarter Rondo tangled with Dwayne Wade. Miami’s guard seemed to intentionally pull Rondo along with him on their way down to the floor. The Celtics point guard’s left arm came down hard and it bent unnaturally as it impacted the parquet.

In the locker room Rondo had his dislocated left elbow popped back into its socket. Although his left arm dangled at his side as useless as John Lackey, Rondo nonetheless took the court in the final quarter. The Celtics notched a 97-81 victory and kept themselves in the series. Rondo joins a pantheon of gutty athletes rebounding after injury, like Larry Bird on May 5, 1991 or Curt Schilling on October 19, 2004, to name just two.

Game 33: May 7, 2011
Minnesota Twins 12-19	0	L: Brian Duensing (2-2)
		No extra base hits
Boston Red Sox 15-18	4	W: Clay Buchholz (3-3) H: Rich Hill (1) H: Matt Albers (1) H: Daniel Bard (6)
		2B: Jacoby Ellsbury (10), Adrian Gonzalez (12)