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FINAL: Red Sox 6, Angels 3 »
October 5, 2007
Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka wipes his brow in the first inning.
BY JIM DONALDSON
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON – Dice-K some day may be worth every penny of the $103 million it cost the Red Sox to sign him.
But not Friday night.
Continuing his late-season slide, Daisuke Matsuzaka, the highly-hyped – and highly-expensive – Japanese pitching sensation, was considerably less than sensational in his major-league, postseason debut, failing to get through the fifth inning.
He was pulled from the game with the Red Sox trailing, 3-2, and runners on first and third, with two outs. He was tagged for seven hits, walked three, and struck out three while throwing 96 pitches, 62 of them for strikes.
It was the sort of start that lately has been all-too-typical for the 27-year-old right-hander.
After winning seven of his first nine decisions to start the season, Matsuzaka is 8-10 since May 30.
His monthly earned-run average has increased every month since June. After posting a dazzling, 1.59 figure that month, he went up to 3.62 for the month of July, 4.45 for the month of August, and had a woeful, 7.62 mark in September.
Matsuzaka struggled often last month, when he was knocked out in the third inning at Baltimore, gave up five runs in six innings at Tampa Bay, and surrendered seven runs in five innings to the Blue Jays in Boston, although he was credited with the win in that game because he was spotted to an early, 10-1, lead.
He also was racked for six runs in six innings by the lowly Devil Rays – who had the worst record in major-league baseball – in a mid-August start at Fenway.
For the month of September, Dice-K was tagged for 32 hits and 24 runs in 28 innings.
Overall, he posted good numbers – a 15-12 record, with 201 strikeouts in 204 innings. He issued just 80 walks and allowed 191 hits, less than one per inning.
But his recent ineffectiveness has to be a serious source of concern to the Red Sox, who have him penciled in to start the decisive Game Five, if necessary, of their A.L. Division Series with the Angels.
“He went through a lot of things for the first time,” Boston manager Terry Francona said prior to Friday night’s game. “He was thrown culturally. Think about it – every time he opens his mouth, even to talk to one of his teammates, he has to think his way through it. There is that hurdle.”
And that’s hardly the only one Matsuzaka has had to face.
“New training methods; different methods,” Francona said. “Where do we meet in the middle?
“Now, about his pitching. He went through a period where he lost some real tough games – 1-0, 2-1. Pitched really well. Then he went about five starts where all his pitches started running together. When he got into a bind, it was hard and harder. His slow stuff started to run together.
“His last outing (a win over the Twins in which he gave up just two runs, on six hits, over eight innings) there was a lot of definition to his pitches again, which is good – four, five different pitches that have different looks, different locations, different speeds, because that’s the way he needs to pitch. He can throw his fastball when he needs to, but his off-speed can be so devastating.”
That’s what the Sox were counting on from Matsuzaka when they shelled out nine figures to bring him to Boston from the Seibu Lions.
It could be devastating, as well as costly, to the Sox if Dice-K doesn’t pitch that way in the postseason.
Posted by Jim Donaldson 
at 11:56 PM | Permalink
