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July 24, 2007
CLEVELAND _ There are pitching matchups, then there are pitching duels.
Jacobs Field was the setting last night for this good old fashion clash between Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka and Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia, and in the end it was the Red Sox who came away with a 1-0 margin of victory with Dice-K leading the way. Boston has now won five straight to equal its longest winning streak of the season.
Matsuzaka worked seven solid scoreless innings, allowing four hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Sabathia was just as strong, also working seven with the one run and seven strikeouts.
“That’s a good lineup,” said Boston manager Terry Francona. “That’s a major-league game pitched by both guys. You’re not going to see too many 1-0 games here against that lineup.”
Francona said Matsuzaka’s repertoire, especially his curveball and cutter were extremely sharp last night, calling Dice-K’s 21st start of the season strong.
“I’m grateful for the one run my teammates were able to score, and that obviously made the difference,” said Matsuzaka. “Since we’ve won a lot of games in a row coming in, I’m very glad I didn’t stop the winning streak.”
Even though one run proved to be the difference for Boston, the Sox’ defense was spectacular last night. In fact every position player made at least one difficult play look routine.
“There’s not a play in a 1-0 game that’s not big,” admitted Francona. “You have to make every one in a game like that.”
With both opposing starting pitchers locked in, Boston was able to push a run across in the top of the fourth inning as Mike Lowell’s two-out soft liner to left field dropped in, allowing Kevin Youkilis to score for the 1-0 advantage.
“When we scored that one run, at the time you don’t know if it’ll hold up,” said Francona. “It looked like (Cleveland left fielder Ben Francisco) broke back a step, and fortunately it was one step enough because that’s all we had. Sabathia threw the ball great.”
With the Red Sox protecting a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Indians’ Ben Francisco lead off with a single to left field to set up a possible sacrifice bunt for Josh Barfield. He was able to get the bunt down, but Youkilis made a heads-up play, snaring the ball and getting the force out at second. With two outs, Barfield stole second but was left stranded to secure Boston’s marginal lead.
“That was a great play,” said Francona. “That’s a play that not a lot of first basemen attempt, let alone make it. How do you know at the time what is going to be enough? That’s why you play a good defensive game, you get good pitching, the team looks crisp then you score one and it’s enough. It ended up being a good night.”
The Red Sox had a chance to add to its lead in the eighth when Julio Lugo provided a one-out double to left field only to be stranded. With the hit, he extended his streak to 14 games to tie a career-high.
Boston bullpen kingpins, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon, kept the Cleveland bats at bay in the final two innings en route to victory. Okajima retired the side in order in the eighth and Papelbon did the same to earn his 23rd save of the season.
Matsuzaka said after the game he felt he was just finding his groove and wanted to continue, but Francona had other thoughts.
“By my own count I was not quite at 100 pitches,” said Matsuzaka. “I felt okay to continue to pitch in the eighth inning, but the manager came up to me and said ‘Okajima and Papelbon would take it from here’ and when you hear those names it’s tough to argue. My goal going forward is to continue to work hard and ease the burden on our great bullpen.”
Sabathia was attempting to win his 14th game of the season, while Matsuzaka was just going about his normal routine as he improved to 12-7 in his first year in the majors.
His regimen is unique as he works harder on the day of a start probably more so then he does during an outing. Yesterday afternoon at The Jake, Matsuzaka made his way onto the field around 2:15 p.m. and threw a couple of shadow pitches on the mound before starting his lengthy running program. Francona said Dice-K is pretty consistent with his game-day routine.
After he was done running, the sweat was pouring from his forehead, something you don’t see from the traditional major-league pitchers, who normally rest the day of a start.
“That’s something I wish would rub off on our culture,” said Francona of Matsuzaka’s routine. “I know there are ways to try to meet in the middle. I could never understand, pitchers are a different breed and I don’t understand them to begin with, but you see some guys are sleeping at 6:30 and then 20 minutes later they have the biggest day of their week.”
Matsuzaka continues to display that his methods work.
------JOE McDONALD
Posted by Thom Cahir 
at 11:08 PM to McDonald
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