Red Sox need more from purported No. 2 starter Clay Buchholz

1:11 AM ET

BOSTON — Although he earned points for creativity by designing those snazzy “He’s The Ace” T-shirts, Clay Buchholz proved once and for all last season that no, he isn’t capable of leading a starting rotation.

A year later, he’s demonstrating he isn’t much of a No. 2 starter, either.

All Buchholz needed to do on Thursday night to extend the Boston Red Sox’s winning streak to a season-high five games entering their first series of the season against the archrival New York Yankees was defeat the sad-sack Atlanta Braves, a team that had lost eight consecutive games, hit exactly one home run since April 10 and scored no more than four runs in a game since April 19.

For the fourth time in five starts this season, the Red Sox’s Clay Buchholz gave up five runs in an eventual 5-2 loss to the Braves. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

No sweat, right? Any old No. 2 starter should be able to handle that.

Not Buchholz.

For the fourth time in five starts this season, Buchholz gave up five runs in an eventual 5-2 loss to the Braves. For the fifth consecutive start, he failed to complete the seventh inning. He fumbled a 1-0 lead in the second, and when the Red Sox cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third inning, he gave up another run in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Braves leadoff man Nick Markakis.

At least Markakis is an accomplished hitter, an AL East rival for years with the Baltimore Orioles. The worst part of all this for Buchholz is that he issued four walks, three by .200-hitting Braves second baseman Jace Peterson, and gave up two hits to No. 9-hitting Mallex Smith, a 22-year-old rookie with …

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