Buchholz

PAWTUCKET — Clay Buchholz proved he is healthy enough to pitch again. Now the question is: What do the Red Sox do with him?

Pitching for the first time in 13 days after tearing the nail on the middle finger of his pitching hand, Buchholz helped Pawtucket beat Rochester, 11-1, last night at McCoy. Buchholz went 4 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and one run. He walked two and struck out three.

“I felt good. I felt rested,” Buchholz said of an effort in which he threw 63 pitches, 38 for strikes. “I was up in the zone a little bit, but I think that’s a case of being a little anxious to throw. I felt like I got low in the zone for the most part after that. … I think today was a good day for me.”

The finger problem is no more.

“I hurt it on a fastball, a two-seamer,” Buchholz said. “After that I felt a lot of pressure. That was the game I went to a lot of change ups and curve balls, a lot of off-speed stuff. Today and the previous bullpen (sessions), it hasn’t affected me at all. It felt natural and normal.”

Red Sox management had set 65 pitches as Buchholz’ target for the night. When he completed the fourth inning having thrown 55 pitches, he was allowed to come out for the fifth. However Garrett Jones worked an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with a double down the line in right and Hunter Jones was brought in relief as Buchholz received applause from the crowd of 10,149.

Buchholz threw regularly in the mid 90s. He relied heavily on his fastball early on, but then mixed in a number of breaking balls toward the end. He also was helped by the fact that Rochester had two runners thrown out on the bases, one trying to steal, another trying to advance on a bobbled ball.

“They told me they want me to throw 60 to 65 percent fastballs. So that’s what I tried to do,” he said. “I felt like there were a lot of off-speed counts where I could have thrown off-speed pitches and maybe got some swings and misses, but I stuck to the fastball. Overall, I felt like it worked out good.”

“After the fourth, he had about 10 pitches left and I told him that,” said manager Ron Johnson. “He said, ‘Let me use them.’ He wanted to get back out there. That’s a good sign.

“For not being on the mound in a while, I was pleasantly surprised with his command,” Johnson added.

The question now is where Buchholz goes from here? With Bartolo Colon healthy, the Sox have six starters looking for work. When Colon made his first start for Boston last week, and pitched well, Boston pitching coach John Farrell spoke highly of the veteran. It was not a question of whether Colon would stay with Boston. Farrell spoke as if it was a virtual sure thing.

“From what I understand, I’ve got another outing on Friday in Durham,” Buchholz said. “It’s up to them from there. They said I was coming down for two outings. That’s what I’m looking at right now. If I’ve got to stay a little bit longer, so be it. I’ll be ready to go whenever they give me the call.”

Last season, when Boston was trying to limit Buchholz’ innings, the organization moved the young right-hander to the bullpen briefly. Buchholz, though, has made only one minor-league appearance in relief and his style does not seem as easily translated to the bullpen as that of Justin Masterson, another of the team’s excellent pitching prospects.

Buchholz will let everyone else decide when and where he’ll pitch.

“Whenever your name is called, you’ve got to do your job. You can’t really wonder what it’s going to be like in five days or whenever,” he said. “You’ve got to make the best of every outing that you go out there. That’s what I’m on my way to doing right now. I’m just trying to get back up there to stay up there, regardless of whether its five starters or six starters.”

pkenyon@projo.com