Projo Sox Blog

DETROIT -- Daisuke Matsuzaka looked like himself again Tuesday night against the Detroit Tigers.

That's a loaded statement, of course. Looking like himself means he put multiple runners on base in most of his five innings, and threw too many pitches to last deep into the game.

But it also means that when he left the game, the scoreboard only showed one Detroit run, and his team was in position to win. He got key strikeouts when he needed them, and escaped jams as only he knows how.

Implausible as it may seem that Matsuzaka can keep this up, this is the kind of pitcher he has shown to be over the past three years with Boston. And while most pitchers may not be able to pull it off, most of the time Matsuzaka can.

"He is what he is, and he goes out there and competes all the time. He continues to compete. It's not like he's not trying to make quality pitches. He continues to do that," said his catcher, Jason Varitek.

Matsuzaka parlayed his own brand of effectiveness into an 18-win campaign last year. Until Tuesday night, Matsuzaka has not been able to walk his usual tightrope. He came into tonight with an 8.82 ERA, and spent time on the disabled list with shoulder weakness after a particularly brutal outing in his second start of the season. It did not seem like Matsuzaka was acutely injured, but that perhaps the Red Sox were protecting the shoulder in the hope that it will hold up better for the entire season. Matsuzaka pitched for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March, and took on a heavier workload than most pitchers starting out the year.

He came out of the gate looking like it may have taken its toll. He allowed three runs in each of his first four starts of the season, and has not made it past the fifth inning in any of them. He was winless coming into this game.

This time he left the mound in position for the win, after a fifth inning was classic Matsuzaka. He walked the first two batters, then struck out Clete Thomas, induced a line-out from Placido Polanco, and then struck out Magglio Ordonez to end the inning.

"I thought I was able to pitch well with runners on base. Unfortunately I wasted a few pitches in the fifth inning," Matsuzaka said.

The sequence to Ordonez was particularly satisfying for Matsuzaka. He struck out the Tiger right fielder on a six-pitch at-bat to end the jam.

"Letting a runner on in that situation would have made things a lot worse, a lot tougher for me. So I feel I was able to make a good pitch in a good spot, with a lot of action," he said.

Until then, Varitek thought Matsuzaka might make it to the sixth.

"He just got in a little bit of walk trouble. I didn't realize, that actually his pitches were as high as he were at that point," Varitek said.

At the least, Matsuzaka did not have a relapse into the wildness that caused four wild pitches and numerous balls in the dirt in his last start against Minnesota. He did uncork one wild pitch, but with his vicious, biting stuff and occasional command problems, that's to be expected.

"He's going to throw some pitches in the dirt, and move the ball around. That's part of who he is," Varitek said.

For Matsuzaka, winning the first game means the year is truly underway, and perhaps this heralds that the Matsuzaka show will be playing its usual, chaotically effective weekly performances.

"Getting that first win is so important because it kind of marks the start of the season, in a way. I was finally able to get my first win today, and I finally feel like I can get the season going," he said.

 Tags  Daisuke Matsuzaka Dan Barbarisi Jason Varitek Terry Francona

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