Buchholz a work in progress <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Clay Buchholz's torn fingernail May 12 at Minnesota earned him a nearly two-month stay in the minor leagues to work on his mechanics. Last night, he demonstrated what he had been working on in his five starts with Triple A Pawtucket. His first inning was punctuated by nerves, Buchholz said, and he worked five innings, allowing four runs - a career high at Fenway Park - on five hits. He struck out six and was assessed the loss in the Red Sox' 7-3 setback to the Orioles. During the first, Buchholz (2-4) gave up two hits, three walks, and two runs and felt his delivery was off. "I was rushing a little bit to home plate coming out of the stretch and talked to [pitching coach John Farrell] between innings," said Buchholz, "and he said to stay back a little bit longer and then that took care of everything else." Buchholz allowed three hits and struck out six the next four innings. The main areas of focus during his minor league tuneup were his arm slot and fastball, and Buchholz liked how things felt last night. "I felt really smooth," said Buchholz, who threw 107 pitches (65 for strikes), the most he has thrown since a 113-pitch outing April 26 at Tampa Bay. "I didn't feel like there was a lot of jerky motions going on. Felt like I slowed down throwing offspeed stuff, but I think that happens throughout the game with everybody. Felt good overall with the fastball and most of the location." Buchholz had held opponents to one run or fewer in his three previous starts at Fenway this season. He also owned a no-hitter against the Orioles last Sept. 1 in his second career start. Coming into the game, no current Orioles had a hit against Buchholz (0 for 19). That ended when the first batter, Brian Roberts, doubled to left field. "When he gathers himself at balance point, his back is not arching like it was before," said manager Terry Francona of Buchholz's mechanical changes. "He's getting over the barrel, which is really good, and gets in a position where he can get off that rubber and get at [catcher Jason Varitek] and that hitter and let it go. I thought his fastball was better." It seemed so. Buchholz's fastball touched 96 miles per hour routinely, like when he struck out the side in the third. He used the fastball to strike out Nick Markakis, then showed his offspeed pitches: a 79-m.p.h. curveball to whiff Aubrey Huff, and an 80-m.p.h. curve to fan Melvin Mora. Buchholz felt he had more velocity on the fastball. "Yeah, I feel like I do just for the fact that it feels more free and easy," he said. "It might be 3 inches lower from what I was throwing from, but it feels like I don't have to move any other part of my body to let my arm get through. "I think that's what the whole factor of me going down and working on stuff was for me to duplicate that delivery and keep it in the same arm slot." Varitek said Buchholz is not strictly a fastball pitcher because "he's got such dominant offspeed stuff." Francona seemed pleased with Buchholz's progress - after the first, that is. "The next couple innings, I thought his fastball had some explosion on it," Francona said. "He threw with some finish, real good velocity, pretty good offspeed. I thought there were times he worked ahead and tried to make a great pitch and worked the count back into hitters' counts. "Just repeating his pitches and getting himself into a position where he is ahead in the count more than not would certainly be beneficial. "There's a lot to like with this kid."</div>
