Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz has been on the shelf for a large part of the season and he’s tired of saying hearing people say he’s not tough enough, according to ESPNBoston.com.
Buchholz has been out of the starting rotation since June to to a strained bursa sac in his right shoulder. Prior to that he had only pitched 11 2/3 innings since May 22.
"People are saying I'm weak. I want to be out there. I was having the best year of my baseball career," he said.
Buchholz was an early season Cy Young Award candidate before his injury. He is 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA and 81 strikeouts through 12 games.
"It's close to that AC joint, so I can't say that they're not interrelated at some point," said Red Sox manager John Farrell June 9 explaining that Buchholz's latest shoulder injury is near to the collarbone injury that kept him out of the rotation in May.
A visit with Dr. James Andrews on July 22, confirmed Buchholz had an inflammation of his bursa sac which is called bursitis. Prior to the diagnosis Buchholz tried to pitch threw the injury but it only got worse.
The Texas native is expected to throw on flat ground and play long toss on Friday. He said he thinks the recovery process is going well.
"Hopefully [Friday] I'll ramp up the intensity as far as the velocity on the throws and see how the body responds to that," Buchholz said. "If everything goes well there, that's when I can start getting off the mound."
Red Sox Manager John Ferrell said an “an aggressive crow hop” will help the team gage whether or not Buchholz is ready to get back to work.
"Overall it's been frustrating," Buchholz said. "I want to be out there pitching as much as anybody else does. Going through what I've gone through, feeling like the days I've felt good, as a whole, I think we tried to rush it a little too quick at some points. That was the reason why I was set back after that."
Buchholz said although he has dealt with injuries before, he’s had no experience with this type of injury.
"This is the first time I've had to deal with something like this, and not really having a feel for it and not knowing really how much time to take off and let all the inflammation get out of it," he said. "Whenever I've felt good, I wanted it to happen right then, and obviously the front office did, too."
The Red Sox recently acquired 2007 Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, who is expected help fill the hole that Buchholz left, from the Chicago White Sox. According to Farrell, Peavy will make his first start for his new team on Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"Given the situation we're in right now and everybody's throwing the ball well, and getting Peavy as an addition, I think that sort of takes a little bit of stress off of everybody," Buchholz said referring to the Red Sox first place standing in the American League East. "It's been almost two months for me, so I don't think there's any reason to try to rush it now."
