PawSox pitching coach Rich Sauveur (13) visits the mound in the third inning along with catcher Dusty Brown to talk with starter Clay Buchholz, who left after three innings last night.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

PAWTUCKET –– Ron Johnson, Clay Buchholz and Cox Cable television combined last night to put on a display of how dramatically different minor-league baseball is from the major-league variety.

It came both during and after Buchholz, one of Boston’s prized prospects, pitched for Pawtucket against Buffalo at McCoy.

It was not a good night for the rangy right-hander. Buchholz, who had clearance to throw 100 pitches, was removed after three innings. He allowed six hits and two runs as his team was on the way to a 10-3 loss to the Bisons.

Buchholz needed 73 pitches (49 strikes) to get through the three innings. He threw 36 in the third alone, an inning in which Buffalo scored two runs. Buchholz was not sharp. But he was not pitching badly enough –– especially since several of the hits off him were soft –– to be removed under normal circumstances.

However, these were not normal circumstances. Johnson, the Pawtucket manager, was dealing with a prized prospect who is coming back from an injured finger on his pitching hand and working in 93-degree heat. And several Boston officials were on hand to watch it, including Boston pitching coach John Farrell, who sat in the stands behind home plate with Jason McLeod, the team’s director of amateur scouting.

The end result was that Johnson decided to get Buchholz out of the game earlier than planned. And, because the contest was televised by Cox, he explained what he did soon afterward.

As part of its telecast, Cox puts a microphone on Johnson for one inning each game, and announcers Dan Hoard and Bob Montgomery interview Johnson as he coaches third base. In this case, part of the interview focused on Buchholz, both how he pitched and why he was taken out.

Johnson made it clear Buchholz did not want to leave so quickly.

“I’m not someone he’s real fond of right now,” Johnson said. “But we’re always going to do what we think is best for the player in the long term. … I’m staying out here on the field because if Clay had a bat he’d probably throw it at me now.”

Johnson felt Buchholz pitched better than his numbers indicated.

“His velocity was really good. He was downhill with the fastball (as high as 96 on the radar gun). He had some run to it,” the manager said. “I thought he made a lot of really good pitches. I thought that he threw some filthy breaking balls, no-chance breaking balls, some no-chance changeups. When you see Clay on the mound, it’s so impressive to me.

“At the same time, we’re going to be cautious with him,” Johnson added. “It’s a very hot, humid night out here. He had the 36-pitch inning or somewhere in that frame.”

Buchholz admitted he was not happy to be taken out, although he said it was not Johnson he was upset with.

“I wasn’t mad at him. I’ve made four starts here. I’ve been taken out with 82 pitches or less (every time). I saw or understood his reasoning getting me out of the game, but at the same time everybody here is a competitor. Everybody wants to be out there and do good,” he said.

Buchholz felt he made a couple mistakes, but overall thought he was solid.

“I thought I made two bad pitches, both got hit hard,” he said. “The others were good pitches. There were two broken bats, two ground balls that on another night could have been at somebody.” He also struggled communicating at times with new catcher Dusty Brown. Buchholz stepped off the rubber or shook off Brown a number of times, a problem due to the fact that he had not told Brown he wanted to throw more fastballs rather than off-speed pitches.

Despite the numbers, Buchholz was not discouraged.

“I told John (Farrell) I felt better today than I have all year, maybe dating back to last year, too, as far as physically,” he said. “He told me, ‘You’re going to let us know that you’re ready to come back.’ I took that to heart. I told him it won’t be much longer.”

Buchholz was 2-3 with a 5.53 earned-run average in eight starts for Boston before being injured.

pkenyon@projo.com