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What good is a live fastball if you don't want to use it?

Boston rookie Clay Buchholz will have to learn that he needs to work off his fastball to survive in the big leagues. Monday night against the Twins, he threw it less than half the time -- and got hammered.

By PATRICK REUSSE, Star Tribune

Last update: May 13, 2008 - 8:49 AM

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Love Dick and Bert

I agree with the comments about the Twins radio announcers. However; my wife loves Dick and Bert and that means I get to watch the Twins … read more on 60 HD screen instead of the little tv in the basement. I love Dick and Bert. :)

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More from Patrick Reusse

Earl Williams was a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 1973 and 1974. Actually, Williams was a hitter that manager Earl Weaver would put behind in the plate to create another possibility for a three-run homer in his lineup.

Jesse Jefferson was a young righthanded pitcher. The O's considered him a top prospect because of his excellent fastball.

Williams was the catcher on a night when Jefferson was throwing changeups, breaking pitches and very few fastballs. He also was constantly behind hitters and getting knocked around.

A frustrated Weaver went to Williams between innings and said: "What's going on, Earl? Why don't you have the kid throwing any fastballs?"

According to legend, Williams gestured toward the opposing the dugout and said: "If I'm not getting fastballs, they aren't getting fastballs."

This is a baseball story that sticks, to the point that decades later a fellow was watching young righthander Clay Buchholz pitch for Boston, and kept checking to see if Earl Williams rather than Jason Varitek was behind the plate.

Buchholz threw a no-hitter last Sept. 1 in his second major league start. The 23-year-old was off limits when the Twins and Boston were discussing a possible trade for Johan Santana.

On Monday night, Buchholz was matched against the Twins' Livan Hernandez, in what figured to be a duel of raw power against willpower.

Buchholz was arriving on the Metrodome mound with a 93 miles-per-hour fastball coming out of a quick, deceptive delivery. By contrast, Livan is deliberate with everything, including his humped-up fastball of 85.

Two hours later, Hernandez and Buchholz were both finished, the Twins were leading 7-3, and the smallish Dome gathering (announced at 18,782) had watched this puzzling approach to pitching:

Buchholz threw 37 fastballs among 90 pitches. Hernandez threw 59 fastballs among 92 pitches.

Members of Red Sox Nation and Twins Village are both entitled to be confused as to why the kid with the live fastball threw it 41 percent of the time, while the veteran who must hide his fastball in small corners of the strike zone used it on 64 percent of his pitches.

Buchholz throws a curveball that has a Bert Blyleven-like arc on it when he snaps a good one. He also has a wonderful changeup that can fall away from the hitter in either direction.

And those things don't change the fact that like every other starter on the planet -- like Santana, Brandon Webb, Greg Maddux -- Buchholz will have to work off his fastball if he plans to start fulfilling his potential sooner than later.

OK, the kid was having trouble throwing his fastball for strikes early on, and he did get out of a first-inning jam by striking out Delmon Young on three curveballs.

Still, there were Twins hitters looking at those offspeed pitches as favors compared to Buchholz fastballs.

"We had hitters coming back to the dugout saying, 'That guy has a great fastball,' " Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

The Red Sox scored three in the first off Hernandez. Buchholz gave back two of those runs in the bottom of the inning, then two more in the third.

When the game got away from him, though, there were two on and one out in bottom of the fifth. Craig Monroe was the hitter. Hard stuff away doesn't seem to be Monroe's forté.

Buchholz decided to throw him a hook. It hung enough for Monroe to lace a two-run double down the left field line, making it 6-3. Young followed with an RBI single for the last run in the Twins' 7-3 victory.

Hernandez was rocked for four hits in the first, including Manny Ramirez's rocket of a two-run homer to right field. He made it through the second by spearing Dustin Pedroia's scalded liner, then spiked the dented baseball on the mound.

And Livan followed with four more scoreless innings, taking the 7-3 lead through the sixth.

Juan Rincon and Jesse Crain combined for the last nine outs and there it was: Three out of four against the bad men from Boston.

The Twins did it with a Mike Lamb blooper, with a pink-bat power explosion and with strong-armed Clay Buchholz being guided along as if his catcher was Earl Williams.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and at 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com

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