Matsuzaka Watch

4, 5, 6

The 4th inning had Daisuke starting to look like himself a bit. His pace improved, and while the breaking stuff still wasn't sharp, he found enough to sneak a few good ones behind his fastball. 3 up, 3 down, all strikeouts. He's bouncing. Getting his rhythm and his confidence has helped him look relaxed and he carried it over into the 5th inning with 10 consecutive batters retired.

The 5th saw Daisuke in a little trouble. He got ahead of Alex Gordon nicely, and actually jammed him badly with a 95 mph fastball, but the bat broke and the ball went into left center. That was Gordon's first Major League hit. Out of the stretch, Matsuzaka worked Shealy with fastballs again and struck him out. Gload was 1st pitch swinging and lined out. The catcher, Buck, was also dominated and behind in the count, but Matsuzaka hung a curveball badly and lost it to a hit. 1st and 3rd with 2 out. Rookie, Tony Pena, Jr. saw a straight diet of fastballs in the 93 mph range and finally grounded out meekly to the pitcher for the final out. Daisuke responded to trouble the way he usually does, calmly and effectively.

The third time through the order was not kind to Daisuke. DeJesus greeted him with a big home run on a mediocre fastball with little movement. German dropped a little pop up between Lugo and Drew for a hit and watched as Teahan battled and battled a variety of pitches. The umpire called him out on strikes, and a bang-bang play at 2nd on a steal attempt was called out for a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play. At first glance I thought he was safe, but the replay showed how close it really was. Emil Brown doubled to left center and the umpires were showered with more boos as the crowd felt that would have been the game tying hit. Alas, nothing came of the extra base hit (or the booing) as Alex Gordon looked overmatched, falling behind on splitters before being called out on a 94 mph fastball on the outside black. Varitek set up way outside and Daisuke hit his spot. 1 run and 1 walk against 8 strikeouts through 6. Not a bad debut so far.....

posted by Mike Plugh @ 4:27 AM