Clay Buchholz, delivering a pitch in the first inning against the Angels last Friday night, says he will make some pregame changes in his warmup routine to try to correct his first-inning problems.

AP / Gus Ruelas

SEATTLE — When Clay Buchholz takes the mound this afternoon in the final game of the Red Sox’ current road trip, he’ll be doing so with a different routine and preparation than in the recent past.

In his two starts since being recalled from Pawtucket, Buchholz has struggled mightily in the first inning.

Against the Baltimore Orioles on July 11, Buchholz needed 29 pitches to get through the first. The Orioles sent seven men to the plate and scored two runs while Buchholz stranded two.

It got worse last Friday when Buchholz opened the second half of the season for the Sox at Angel Stadium and allowed five baserunners and three runs in the first inning. Eight members of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim came to the plate, and by the time Buchholz retired Howie Kendrick on a liner to short, he had thrown 37 pitches.

After the game, manager Terry Francona mentioned that he had talked to pitching coach John Farrell during the game and suggested Buchholz alter his pregame preparation to prevent similar innings.

Buchholz, at the time, didn’t seem to think his troubles were related to his pregame routine, but yesterday he acknowledged that some changes were in the works.

“We talked about doing some different things when I warm up,” said Buchholz. “When I get about three-quarters through, I’ll sit down in the bullpen for about five minutes, then get up and finish the rest of it and try to (replicate) me sitting down for the first time and see how that works. Maybe we can break that first-inning barrier that’s there right now.”

Buchholz is willing to try to experiment in search of better results, but when he looks back on the last two starts, he finds the damage was more circumstantial and the result of poor execution more than anything else.

“Even in the last game (against the Angels),” he said, “I got the first out with two pitches, then I had a 12-pitch at-bat (against Casey Kotchman). It was one of those things that happened. It went from there. I gave up a couple of bloop hits and the pitches added up. They got a couple of key hits on fastballs up in the zone when I was behind in the count.

“Then I went out in the second inning and didn’t do anything different, made a couple good pitches and didn’t run into trouble again until the fourth. We’ve talked about trying to do something different and we’ll try it tomorrow.”

Even as Buchholz attempts to straighten out his first-inning history, he’s incorporating some adjustments to his delivery. The Sox wanted his release point adjusted to provide better command of the fastball and that became a project while at Pawtucket.

“I feel my whole arm-angle situation has taken care of itself,” he said. “It’s more consistent than it was. Now it’s just trying to repeat a delivery where I can throw to both sides of the plate on a consistent basis whenever I want. Whenever I need a pitch, I can throw a fastball away and get a strike on it, rather than leaving it over the middle.

“I was leaning over, so my arm was really high. Now I’m more upright and it’s not like the angle of my arm has changed; it’s my body.”

The change in his release point has also forced some changes in Buchholz’s approach. Because he’s altered his mechanics, he now must account for different movement on his pitches, including his two-seam fastball.

“In the past,” he said, “I’ve been starting it and it’s only been moving a little bit. Now I’m starting it in a different location for it to still be a strike.”

The Sox still value Buchholz, but would like to see him advance in the second half of the season.

He failed to go deeper than 5 1/3 innings in any of his last five starts — the last three he made before suffering a fingernail tear that sent him to the disabled list and on to Pawtucket for his rehab assignment — and the two he’s made since returning.

A more efficient first inning today would be a good place to start.

smcadam@projo.com