I had the good fortune of traveling to Fifth-Third Field in downtown Toledo to watch the Mud Hens square off against Clay Buchholz and the
Pawtucket PawSox last evening. If you are interested in a firsthand report, enjoy the following.

The pitching matchup was RH Anastacio Martinez vs. RH Clay Buchholz.
Martinez was good through the first two innings, but Buchholz ran into immediate trouble in the bottom of the first. After making leadoff hitter Andres Torres look bad striking out, Buchholz lost 2nd hitter Henry Mateo on a base on balls. Third place hitter Timo Perez promptly cranked a long HR to straight-away RF to put the Hens up 2-
0. Buchholz walked 2 more (Hannahan and Clevlen) in the 1st before closing out the inning. Toledo was up 2-0 after 1 inning.

In the top of the 3rd inning, Pawtucket 9th-place hitter Alex Prieto started things off with a 1B, and Brady Clark doubled him to 3B.  Prospect SS Jed Lowrie then singled home both runners to tie the game at 2. Martinez must have hurt himself on that pitch because Toledo manager Larry Parrish relieved him with RH Jeremy Johnson who had not
been warming up to that point. The PawSox had no outs, but only managed one more single, and did not score further. Tie game, 2-2 going to the bottom of the 3rd inning.

Buchholz again ran into trouble in the 3rd inning. The first three hitters (Mateo-1B, T.Perez-2B, Hannahan-BB) reached to load the bases
with no outs. However, Buchholz bore down to K Shelton, induce Clevlen into a shallow fly to RF, and then Prieto made a tremendous play in the hole at 2B to retire David Espinosa on a ground ball to end the inning (scored 4-1, pitcher covering).

Buchholz only was able to complete 4 innings due to a seriously-elevated pitch count. His final line; 4 3 2 2 3 7 (1 HRA).
Buchholz's fastball settled between 91-94, and in the 3rd and 4th, he was very successful with what appeared to be a slider (82-84). He also threw a curve and change in the 70s. He is a slight pitcher (sure didn't look 6'3") with a similar frame to Bronson Arroyo, but he throws hard with movement. He's impressive, but he'll need to refine his command to help the Red Sox in 2007 and beyond. Buchholz's command reminds me of Chad Billingsley's currently.

In the bottom of the 5th Craig Hansen entered the game. He was similarly impressive for two complete innings. He threw hard (93-95)
and left with a line of 2 1 0 0 1 1. Hansen would sometimes get out of sync, but overall looked better than I've seen him.

The PawSox got to the Hens' bullpen in the top of the 6th. With one out, DH Jumpin' Joe McEwing lined a single. Toledo went to journeyman LHP Vic Darensbourg to face George Kottaras. Kottaras
grounded a tailor-made DP ball up the middle that Toledo 2B Henry Mateo waved at as it went by him into CF. 3B Ed Rogers plated the go-ahead run with a slow groundout to Hannahan at third, and then Alex Prieto got his 3rd hit of the night- an RBI double off the LF wall to score Kottaras.
Pawtucket 4, Toledo 2 going to the bottom of the 6th.

Toledo got a couple of runners into scoring position in the remaining innings (including a hard-hit opposite field double by Shelton in the
bottom of the 6th), but could not cash in any more runs.

Final Score, Pawtucket 4, Toledo 2.

Reports on PawSox players-
Leadoff hitter Brady Clark started off the game with 2 hard-hit doubles - one to LF and one to RF. He was also hit by a pitch in the
back in his 4th PA to finish 2-for-4. He still looks like he could help a ML club off the bench facing primarily LHs.

2nd place hitter Jed Lowrie was the most impressive position player in the game. In his first career game at AAA, Lowrie was adequate at
SS, but really was on every pitch he swung at. He exuded confidence as a switch-hitter, baserunner, and fielder. A former player at Stanford, Lowrie turned 23 in April and just got done
hitting .297/.510/.401 in the Eastern League.

OFs David Murphy and Brandon Moss hit 3rd and 5th. They both are athletic-looking players, but Moss in particular had a long swing.
Murphy seemed like he was the better overall player, but I doubt he has the power necessary for a Fenway every-day OF.

C Kottaras is the only real remaining prospect in Pawtucket's lineup. He showed very little as a hitter, and with his slight frame, there's not much projection for power. I think he may come up
short in his goal to be the next Greg Zaun.

On the pitching side, Buchholz and Hansen were solid, and journeyman RH closer Bryan Corey was "lights out" (following 25yo set-up man,
Edgar Martinez) in retiring 3 of the 4 batters he faced on Ks to end the game.

On the Toledo side, they were missing mainstays Ryan Raburn, (all-time Toledo HR leader) Mike Hessman, and Mike Rabelo who are all currently in Detroit.

In addition to older players like Torres, Mateo, and Perez, they also had David Espinosa, Eric Almonte, and Dane Sardinha in the 7-9 spots
in the order. Sardinha was particularly excreble last night going 0-for-4 with 3 Ks.

The 4-6 hitters were probably the most interesting for Toledo.  Hannahan may be a decent 1B/3B corner bench guy with a LH stick and a
little bit of pop. Shelton still can drive the ball to all fields and has a good approach at the plate. And Clevlen has above-avg. tools across the board and is the youngest at 23. Like a lot of the Tiger prospects, he has K issues.

Detroit used 6 pitchers due to Anastacio Martinez's injury. In addition to Johnson (who was tagged with the loss) and Darensbourg
who were mentioned earlier, Preston Larrison, Fernando Rodney, and Corey Hamman pitched scoreless relief from the 6th inning forward.

Rodney was making his first rehab appearance. He was dominating - striking out 2 in one inning (the 8th) despite walking with one out.
At times Rodney overgripped his slider, but overall, he was the best pitcher all night.

I still like Hamman who mopped up in the top of the 9th. For a smallish LHP, he gets great movement on an assortment of all types of
pitches. There's no reason he can't have a Brian Shouse-like career in the Majors.

I realize this is a little long, but I enjoy going in-depth on the guys that I get to see throughout the summer. Nothing like a minor
league ballgame on a warm summer night!

Comments of all types are appreciated.