CLEARWATER, Fla. - For 90 pitches, Clay Buchholz searched. He plodded Sunday afternoon between each one. His chance at completing just four innings with less than a week until opening day diminished with every misfired fastball.
"Four walks is definitely subpar," Buchholz said. "But, you know, it's still spring training."
It is. Buchholz is a veteran; he has enjoyed good springs and endured bad ones, with the results having little predictive value for the real games. But this spring is atypical because Buchholz has a new employer for the first time in his professional career and his progress was understandably interrupted by the birth of his son, Jax, last week.