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Dice-K in The Big Apple

Daisuke Matsuzaka will get his first look at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night when he pitches the opener of the three-game series.

Dice-K, though, already has seen the vaunted Yankee lineup. And, while he got credit for the 7-6 win last Sunday night at Fenway Park, the right-hander was fairly ordinary, surrendering six runs on eight hits in seven-plus innings.

Now, New York will be facing Matsuzaka for the second time. It will be interesting to see how batters fare against Dice-K and his funky delivery and arsenal of pitches the second time around, having seen his act once.

Francona doesn't seem concerned.

"Hitters are going to make adjustments. That's part of baseball," said Francona. "But Dice-K has a lot of different pitches and command of a lot of different pitches. Our hope is we get a game plan we can execute. He can pitch backwards sometimes (fastballs in breaking-ball counts, and vice versa).

"He's a pretty good pitcher. There will be a lot of firsts. His first time on the mound at Yankee Stadium. In New York for the first time. But we didn't sign him to help us in the first three months of the year. We signed him to help us for a long time. And the more we find out about him, the more excited we get," said Francona.

Dice-K got a head start to New York. He left the Sox' clubhouse before batting practice this afternoon after getting in a light workout. He was taking Amtrak's Acela to New York.

-- Steven Krasner

Posted by Steven Krasner  at 5:50 PM | Permalink