Buchholz Makes History

On the opening day of college football, when Lloyd Carr coached himself out of a job by season's end, Red Sox rookie pitcher took some heat off of the Michigan program. Clay Buchholz became the first Red Sox rookie to pitch a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. Now I know it's only the Orioles, but that's still a major league team, and the no-hitter is still one of the rarest feats in any sport. To make his feat even more impressive, was the fact that this was only his second major league start, making him only the second pitcher since 1900 to accomplish this. More importantly it keeps the Red Sox five games ahead of the Yankees in the A.L. East. After losing four in a row, not to mention being swept by the hated Yanks, the Sox needed something and someone to rally around. Enter Buchholz, who wasn't even supposed to start. Nine innings and no hits later, the Red Sox maintain their lead and quite possibly have been woken up by a week long slumber. The east might have been won tonight. Nothing like a benches clearing brawl or a no-hitter to galvanize a team and catapult them into the playoffs. Maybe I was wrong about baseball, it can still stir up some excitement when it wants to.