Clay Buchholz improved to 7-0 on Wednesday. (AP)

For most of Wednesday night, the Red Sox offense was utterly subdued by White Sox pitching. Yet even before Boston broke out its lumber and blew open the game in the final two innings, the offensive shortcomings proved irrelevant thanks to the (once-again) masterful work of Clay Buchholz, who dominated in Boston’s 6-2 road win at U.S. Cellular Field.

David Ortiz drove in a pair of Red Sox runs with a bloop single in the first inning, and that was all Buchholz (7-0) needed as he only allowed one run and five hits with four strikeouts and three walks over seven innings pitched (113 pitches). He didn’t have his best stuff, working through some jams and holding White Sox hitters 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Buchholz earned his first decision in his last four starts, as he had been stuck at six wins since May 1. The 28-year-old is now tied with Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish and Indians pitcher Justin Masterson for second in the American League in wins, and leads the league with a 1.73 ERA.

The start has been spectacular but not fluky. Over the last full calendar year, dating to last May 22, Buchholz has a 2.84 ERA (tied with Felix Hernandez for the second best among AL starters, minimum 162 innings). Since the start of last year, he has 20 starts of at least seven innings permitting two or fewer runs, tied for the third most in the AL during the span.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

-  The Red Sox got things started on the right foot when Ortiz drove in two runs on a softly hit single to left field in the first inning. The hit followed a double off the wall from Dustin Pedroia that left him and Jonny Gomes in scoring position. Ortiz — who went 2-for-4 — has cooled off a bit since his scorching hot start to the season, but he has still been hitting well as of late. In his last 10 games, Ortiz is batting .375/.432/.600 with 14 RBI.

– With Napoli on first and Daniel Nava at the plate in the first inning, Ortiz surprised everyone by stealing third base. Ortiz did not score on the play, but it was unexpected considering that it was the 12th stolen base of the slugger’s career — his first since June 21, 2011 — and marked the first time he’d ever stolen third in his long career.

– Jacoby Ellsbury matched a season-high by reaching base four times, going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks. It was his first multi-hit game since May 4. That both of his hits were singles did continue a pattern, as each of the leadoff hitter’s last seven hits has been for one base. His last extra-base knock came on May 11. Obviously, offense from Ellsbury represents something that the Sox crave. Entering the game, he’d been hitting .151 with a .262 OBP from the top of the order in his last 13 games.

– First baseman Mike Napoli was signed in no small part because he coupled tremendous raw power with an ability to get on base at an impressive clip due to his affinity for walks. But while the former had been amply evident at stages of the season, the latter had been surprisingly absent. That, however, is now changing. Napoli went 1-for-2 with three walks on Wednesday, and in his last six contests, he now has nine walks en route to a .278/.519/.278 line.

– White Sox runners had no luck trying to steal against Jarrod Saltalamacchia, as he threw out both Alejandro De Aza and Alex Rios each attempting to take second base. The 28-year-old had been 1-for-19 trying to throw out runners this season before Wednesday, but was 2-for-2 on the night.

– Koji Uehara had a dominant eighth inning, punching out a pair while retiring the side in order on nine pitches.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

– Red Sox hitters did not have much trouble with Santiago in the first inning, but after a coaching visit to the mound five batters into the game their bats went cold. After the mound visit, Hector Santiago struck out nine batters while only allowing one hit — a single that snuck underneath shortstop Alexei Ramirez’s glove. Boston did its damage early, but if not for another strong performance, the team could have been in considerable danger of a sweep.

– The only White Sox run could have been prevented had Stephen Drew made a good throw to Pedroia on a Ramirez ground ball with runners on first and second. Had Drew’s throw not been too high, Pedroia would not have had to jump for the ball and he could have turned an inning-ending double play. Instead, Ramirez reached safely at first and Tyler Flowers made it to third base, where he scored from on a single by Rios.

Drew was not charged with an error on the play and Buchholz limited the damage by striking out Adam Dunn to end the inning, but the White Sox could have been held scoreless if not for the failed double play.

– Andrew Bailey, in his first appearance since coming off the DL, permitted a monstrous homer to Paul Konerko in the ninth inning in a non-save situation. Still, he struck out 11 and threw 9 of 11 pitches for strikes in his first appearance since April 28.

CHICAGO – Coming off a one-hit, one-walk performance Tuesday night, Jacoby Ellsbury remains atop the Red Sox’ lineup with the Red Sox going up against lefty Hector Santiago. (Santiago is filling in for Chris Sale, who was scratched due to shoulder tendonitis.)

Shane Victorino is out of the lineup for a second straight game, still battling a hamstring issue suffered in the sixth inning Monday.

Shane Victorino

Red Sox manager John Farrell gave a heath update on outfielder Shane Victorino, infielder Stephen Drew and catcher David Ross on Wednesday

“Shane is not in the lineup again tonight, but he’s gaining mobility,” Farrell told WEEI. “The soreness that he felt the other night after he came out of the game continues to subside, so he’s moving in the right direction, and hopefully, he’s back in our lineup soon.

“My view is it’s always going to be a game or two, and hopefully, that will be the case. I think the thing we have to balance here, as everyone well knows, is that over the past three weeks, it’s been on-again, off-again, and we need to continue to factor that in and not look to risk anything where, again, we’re looking at a day-to-day situation. I’m not saying the DL is imminent, but the fact is that he’s better today than he was two nights ago, which is all good news.

“Stephen Drew is back playing every day. He jarred the back on that headfirst slide on the double back in Minnesota. He is doing good there,” Farrell added. “David Ross, we’re hopeful he will be in Portland tomorrow to get some at-bats and … we’ll just have to go through the normal protocol with MLB when it comes to concussions. So there’s some lengthy paperwork as you might expect to get that taken care of. But we’re hopeful that he’ll be back for us during the Cleveland series.”

John Farrell

Making his weekly appearance with “Salk & Holley” Wednesday, Red Sox manager John Farrell said that struggling outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury will remain in the leadoff spot “for the immediate time, right now.”

“I’m not going to say that that would be the case forever,” Farrell said. “But our goal is to get him going — it’s happened to him before where he was dropped down in the order to get his legs back underneath him and get him going. That has certainly not been ruled out. For now, he still remains in that leadoff spot.

“What I don’t want to do — and I mentioned this a number of times — I don’t want to go through a complete revamping, turning the lineup upside down and shifting two or three guys to the front of the order and replacing those guys in that six or seven slot area. Again, trying to get the highest on-base guys at the top of the order based on matchups as to how guys are going. Some people might point to Daniel Nava as a primary one- or two-hole hitter, but he’s done such a good job for us in that six-hole of driving in runs and hitting for power, plus getting on base … it’s not just ‘Hey, take this guy out of the slot and he becomes a different hitter just because we get him from the one-hole to the six- or seven-hole.’”

Farrell said Ellsbury has done his due diligence when it comes to trying to break out of his slump.

“There’s some inconsistency in timing, no doubt about it,” Farrell said. “It’s encouraging that last night, he gets on two times, one by a walk and one by a base hit up the middle. He’s working with Craig Colbrunn obviously — early work, extra BP. I don’t necessarily think … I know a lot of people are going to say ‘Well, he’s got pending free agency, and that’s the elephant in the room that’s weighing him down.’ I don’t get that sense. I think it’s human nature [to look at] what lies ahead. But Jake has always been a guy that, when adjustments are recommended, they take some time for him to incorporate, and we’re going through that right now.

“When you compare video from this year to 2011 when he had the big year, fundamentally, you’re going to see the same mechanics, the same swing. Where things are different — and for any hitter, the most important thing is seeing the baseball. If he’s seeing it, typically, he’s going to be on time. And sometimes, some of the thoughts that might creep in there — whether that’s frustration, whether it’s from trying to execute a certain swing, those thoughts might interrupt that link from seeing the ball to executing the swing. I think that’s where we’ve seen the inconsistency come from — he’s trying to get it right. Sometimes, by trying harder, you get less benefits from the efforts you’re putting in.”

For more Red Sox news, check out weei.com/redsox.