G51: Red Sox 1, Royals 0

Royals  - 000 000 000 - 0  5  3
Red Sox - 010 000 00x - 1  5  0

Buchholz (7-4-0-4-4, 108) lowered his ERA to 2.73 and Mike Lowell's grounder to second brought in the night's only run.

Adrian Beltre began the second inning with a line single to right and J.D. Drew hit an opposite field double off the Wall. Lowell's grounder brought Beltre home. ... David Ortiz lined a double off the wall in dead center in the fifth.

Daniel Bard allowed a leadoff double to Jason Kendall in the eighth, but pitched out of trouble. After a bunt moved Kendall to third, Bard struck out Mike Aviles (who was primed to swing at anything) and Dustin Pedroia made a great backhanded snag of David DeJesus's hot grounder. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth on 12 pitches.

And Greinke (6-5-1-3-3, 144) once again got the shaft from his mates.

Rays won 8-5, Yankees lost 13-11, Blue Jays won 5-2. ... MFY 4.5, TOR 5.5, BOS 6.5.

Zach Greinke / Clay Buchholz

Scutaro, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Martinez, C
Beltre, 3B
Drew, RF
Lowell, 1B
Hermida, LF
Cameron, CF

Just like in 2009, the Royals offense has ground to a halt whenever Greinke is on the hill. Here are five of his 10 starts this season:

0405 vs Det - 6 innings, 2 runs allowed - N/D
0421 at Tor - 7 innings, 2 runs allowed - N/D
0427 vs Sea - 7 innings, 0 runs allowed - N/D
0502 at Tam - 8 innings, 1 run allowed - Loss
0518 at Bal - 7 innings, 2 runs allowed - N/D

Six earned runs allowed. An ERA of 1.54. And a losing record.

Greinke made 33 starts last season. In 12 of them, his teammates scored 0, 1 or 2 runs, leaving him with a 3-5 record and a 1.47 ERA. In Greinke's nine no-decisions in 2009, he had a 2.35 ERA.

And because I thought of this guy while I was typing all this, here are two quotes:

Wins and losses are how you measure pitchers.
Joe Morgan, Baseball For Dummies, p. 289

ERA is like a batting average. It's a personal thing. ... [W]ins are better.
Joe Morgan, ESPN chat, June 26, 2007

Greinke was hit hard in his last start: 8 runs allowed in 3.1 innings against the Rockies.

Greinke faced the Red Sox on April 10 of this year, allowing four runs in 6.1 innings. He has pitched at Fenway Park only once -- 1.2 innings of relief on July 17, 2007.

AL East:

Spiders/Yankees, 1 PM
Orioles/Blue Jays, 1 PM
White Sox/Rays, 7 PM