Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 17, 2007
Bring Out the Best

It appears that playing against Daisuke Matsuzaka brings out the best in the opposing pitcher. Tonight, Gustavo Chacin held the Red Sox to one run over 6 2/3 innings. Matsuzaka pitched well again, striking out ten and walking just three. Unfortunately, five of the six batters to reach against him came in the same inning, leading to two runs. That was enough to pin a loss on the Red Sox 2-1. The Red Sox have scored just six runs in Dice-K's three starts. If this keeps up, everyone's going to want to face Matsuzaka. :-)


Posted by David Pinto at 09:57 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I remember after he beat the Royals and I heard all this stuff on the news about how good a pitcher he is. I thought "Huh? He beat the Royals. My Mom could probably do that too." ...there's some kind of glee in me that a guy getting paid so much without proving he can play here yet, isn't winning. Sure, he's pitching great...struck out 10 blue Jays tonight, but if he can't win, what good is he? If the Red Sox offense shuts off when Dice-K's on the mound, what benefit to the team is he? $100+ million for this? Heh. He should be counting his blessings that he doesn't play in Philadelphia where the fans are awful tough on guys who don't perform as expected even for a couple starts. I'm very interested to see if, how, and when, he'll turn this around.

Posted by: Devon Young at April 17, 2007 11:02 PM

Oh, please. Matsuzaka isn't winning because Boston isn't scoring, not because he "can't win" or isn't a "good pitcher". He isn't the one who isn't "perform[ing] as expected" -- it's the Red Sox hitters who aren't, and he'll "turn it around" as soon as they do.

Posted by: cwp at April 17, 2007 11:22 PM

NESN showed Wakefield talking briefly with Dice-K after he came out. Wakefield, too, knows what it's like to pitch well but still not get the run support.

Posted by: G Chan at April 17, 2007 11:56 PM

...Devon, get a grip. Jesus; Matsuzaka's supposed to somehow win against a guy throwing a 1-hitter and then follow it up with a shutout? Is that whole post a joke? I hope?

And I don't know about Philly fans, but (most) Boston fans will look at the 2.70 ERA and 24 K's in 20 innings and bitch about the offense before they see the 1-2 record. I would imagine (hope) the same would be true in Philly.

The runs will come; at some point Matsuzaka will match up against a SP who isn't King Felix, or who hasn't always owned Boston the way Chacin has. (5-0, 4.29 ERA in 7 starts before today; Boston hit him hard twice back in 05 and that's about it)

Posted by: the other josh at April 18, 2007 01:56 AM

Hysterical!
Wait, you mean, they're paying $100,000,000 and he can't even manage to score five runs? I think Seibu should have to give a refund. Boston thought they were buying a player who would get some runs scored behind him. Also, for what he's getting paid I think the fans are entitled to a sunny day when he pitches, jeez.

I'm a Yankee fan who's also a Dice-K fan, so great pitching, lots of Ks, and Red Sox losses, that combination warms my heart.

Posted by: James at April 18, 2007 06:56 AM

Dice-K has given up a mere five or six runs in three starts, it's not his fault the Sox offense can't provide him with a little support.

Posted by: tas at April 18, 2007 01:51 PM
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