The name Milt Gaston is not one often invoked in Red Sox lore. Gaston, who pitched for the Sox from 1929 to 1931, had a nondescript 11 year career, winning 97 games. His most notable contribution? He set the team's all time mark for wild pitches in an outing, throwing four wild balls in a game in 1929.

Daisuke Matsuzaka gave Gaston a second life tonight, by tying that record in five innings of erratic work tonight against the Minnesota Twins.

Matsuzaka threw balls in the dirt, to the backstop, and well past catcher George Kottaras' outstretched arm. Kottaras set up low, and Matsuzaka went high, and vice-versa. Matsuzaka was only charged with four wild pitches on the night, but several more balls were on their way before Kottaras snagged them.

It was the first time that Matsuzaka and Kottaras had worked together, and the pitcher felt that had something to do with the result.

"I think, you need a lot of experience to see how you're going to pitch in certain situations to certain hitters," Matsuzaka said, continuing, "There were cases out there today that our signs didn't match up all the time, or our timing didn't match up. All that comes from experience, so I think I needed to take more of a leadership role out there with respect to working with Kottaras today."

The two huddled before the game, discussing how the pitching strategy would go, through an interpreter. But it was clear that they were not in perfect sync.

Kottaras acknowledged that in some way that may have contributed to the wild pitch issue.

"Yes and no. More of it was just trying to stay on the same page with him, and trying to keep a rhythm going. There's more success when a pitcher and catcher are on the same page," Kottaras said.

Their manager, Terry Francona, recognized the bind that KOttaras was in. He was catching an unfamiliar pitcher, with men on base, knowing that a lot of balls are going into the dirt. Sometimes, the balls were in the dirt far off the plate, and that led to some strange ricochets.

"I think that puts him in a difficult position. Certainly, it's a guy he's not caught a lot to begin with, and when there's runners on base, your first thought is to get down, and keep it in front of you, and there were a couple of those that were way out there. I can see where that can lend itself to not feeling real comfortable out there," Francona said.

Kottaras, regardless, praised Matsuzaka's ability to get swings-and-misses, and the fact that despite all the issues, he kept his team in the game.

"He had good stuff tonight, just sometimes, he couldn't repeat some pitches. But at the same time, he got out of some jams. I thought he pitched pretty well," he said.

In a sense, it was Matsuzaka's best outing of the year, despite the wildness. He gave up three runs in his five innings -- the first time he's allowed fewer than four.

Matsuzaka now has an 8.82 ERA in an injury-shortened, 16.1 inning season. Francona said Matsuzaka, the way he pitches, is going to continue to have a tough time getting past the middle innings if he continues to combine lots of walks, strikeouts, and three-ball counts.

"A lot of balls bouncing, and guys moving up, or potentially moving up. You combine the six strikeouts, the three walks, and them being real pesky, it drove his pitch count up," he said. "It's going to be hard to go further with that combination of stuff."

In his 12-19 1929 season, the late Gaston parlayed that four-wild pitch game into a league-leading 17 on the season -- in 243 innings. With five wild pitches of his own now, in only 16.1 innings, Matsuzaka is certainly on pace to earn Gaston another mention down the road.