The growing pains continue to sting for both the Red Sox and right-hander Clay Buchholz.

Brilliant in a short stint at the end of last season, the 24-year-old pitching wunderkind has been wildly inconsistent and had, in recent weeks, started worrying about being perceived as the weak link in Boston’s pitching chain.

It appears those fears were pretty well-founded.

Unfortunately for the Sox, the lack of confidence stems from a set of miserable results that Buchholz has submitted since returning from the minor leagues. The painfully true numbers over his last seven appearances since his return to The Show: 0-6, 31 runs in 32 2/3 innings pitched, 8.29 ERA, 43 hits allowed, eight home runs allowed.

“I’ve never been one to say the pressure is too much for me, but I’ve had a lot of weight on my shoulders,” said Buchholz to reporters after the game. “I’ve been trying to be perfect and do everything I can to help this team win, and it hasn’t been nearly good enough.

“Last year was a lot easier. I just came up and threw and didn’t really think too much,” added Buchholz. “This year I’ve got headaches after the second inning because I’m out there thinking so hard.” 

After the latest debacle on Wednesday night in Baltimore – a game that saw Buchholz fail to get out of the third inning just one night after RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka couldn’t make it into the sixth inning – the rookie righty’s spot in the starting rotation appeared to be in serious jeopardy. That was confirmed immediately following the game when Buchholz was demoted back to Double-A Portland in an attempt to rebuild his confidence, mechanics and fastball command.

The list of potential replacement is neither long nor distinguished.

While Bartolo Colon tries to work his way back from illness and injury at a very slow pace and both Triple-A starters David Pauley and Charlie Zink wait to be called back up to Boston for another chance, RHP Tim Wakefield is on the slow road back to recovery while ramping up his throwing program.

The best hope would obviously be that Wakefield – who threw 44 pitches during a side session on Wednesday -- is ready to come off the 15-day disabled list sooner rather than later – and perhaps even sooner now that the Sox have decided the learning curve is over once the baseball calendar turns to late August and September.

QUICK DEEP THOUGHT FROM JOE HAGGS

* Thank God they finally broke up Dice-K and Buchholz from their consecutive start schedules that had the two "Big Personalities" pitching back-to-back for the Sox. It might make sense numerically, but having a pair of pitchers with stamina/pitch count issues following each other just seems like bad baseball with potentially disastrous bullpen ramifications. It really puts an inordinate amount of pressure on the bullpen guys, which needs to be something factored into the starting rotation equation.

Or maybe it's just me....