Buchholz on Boston ties with D-backs: It made things a bit easier
May 25, 2018, 6:19 PM | Updated: 6:19 pm
Arizona Diamondbacks' Clay Buchholz delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Sunday, May 20, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The link was clear when the Arizona Diamondbacks signed starting pitcher Clay Buchholz.
Buchholz was an All-Star with the Boston Red Sox in 2010 and 2013.
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo (2013-16), general manager Mike Hazen (2015-16) and assistant general manager Jared Porter (2006-15) all spent time in the Red Sox organization prior to arriving in Arizona.
That, assumingly, simplifies a transition for Buchholz with the D-backs and he said so on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Burns & Gambo.
“To have a relationship with Torey, with Mike, with Jared, I think it was big,” he said. “It’s just a whole communication factor is a big thing and whenever you already have a relationship built going into somewhere new, I think it makes it a little bit easier to transition.”
Buchholz pitched well in his first outing against the Mets on Sunday, going five innings and allowing only three baserunners and one run.
After a long start of the season where he got to spring training late with the Kansas City Royals and triggered an opt-out in his contract, it was a good moment.
“It was really neat,” he said. “Just the buildup, the things that I was going through … I knew where I wanted to be. I knew what I wanted to do and it didn’t happen with the Royals.”
Buchholz is scheduled to take the mound on Saturday. Some following the team were confused by the 33-year-old right-hander throwing a bullpen session on the day before his start Friday, but Buchholz said it’s something he has been doing since 2006.
“I like getting off the mound the day before I pitch, it’s only 10, maybe 12 pitches,” he said. “Just to get off the mound, it’s not max effort or anything. It’s just more repetition and working on the spin of each pitch and that’s just how I do it.”
Buchholz joins the D-backs at an odd time, as they are on one of the worst stretches of losing in franchise history.
With the roster he’s on, though, and how long he has been in baseball, Buchholz is confident things will turn around in a big way eventually.
“The worm will turn, it always does,” he said. “(We’ve) got too many good athletes for the stretch to last much longer.
“You just gotta stick with what you’re doing, know that you’re working and know the process will figure itself out at some point and when it does this it’s gonna be really fun because this team will go on a big run.”
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