Projo Sox Blog

The official scorer announced Daisuke Matsuzaka's first pitch at 7:12 p.m. As he was speaking, the ball traveled the 60 feet, 6 inches to home plate, and promptly flew 390 feet off Nate McLouth's bat, into the visting bullpen. The official scorer had not even finished announcing the time of the first pitch before he had to follow up with, "the home run was McLouth's 12th, off the first pitch."

It was an inauspicious beginning, and things got worse from there, eventually culminating in an 8-2 loss. Immediately after McLouth's at-bat, Matsuzaka gave up consecutive line drives to Yunel Escobar and Chipper Jones.

"I couldn't get strikes with either my fastball or my breaking balls, and I had a hard time hitting my locations with any of my pitches," Matsuzaka said.

He threw the next eight pitches outside the strike zone, walking Brian McCann to load the bases, and Garrett Anderson to bring in a run. 13 pitches, and he had still not thrown a strike without having it mashed for a hit. The boos rained down upon Matsuzaka from the Fenway crowd, an unfamiliar moment for the $100 million pitcher.

"Everybody knows that I haven't been performing well, and as a professional, I have to accept when I get a reaction like that," Matsuzaka said.

But just as the wheels seemed to be coming off, Matsuzaka wove his particular brand of magic once again. He struck out Matt Diaz, and then got Casey Kotchman to line into a double play. Poof, he was out of the inning.

Since coming to Boston from Japan in 2007, Matsuzaka has seemingly perfected the art of letting runners reach base without allowing them to do much damage. He put up a 2.90 ERA and 18 wins last season doing just that. But this year, he hasn't been able to pull off the tightrope act. He owns an atrocious 8.23 ERA and a 1-5 record in 35 innings in 2009.

"I can probably say that never before have I faced such a tough time period, but I also believe that it has to end sometime, and I have to do what it takes," Matsuzaka said.

Matsuzaka couldn't get healthy against the punchless Atlanta Braves, owners of the 22nd-best offense in baseball. For two innings after that ugly first, Matsuzaka was solid, but in the fourth and fifth, he came unglued. He allowed two runs in the fourth, and two more in the fifth. Justin Masterson came on to relieve him, and left the inning with the Sox down 6-0.

The team has implored Matsuzaka to stop nibbling on the edges of the strike zone, and challenge hitters over the plate. He tried to do that tonight, but couldn't do it effectively.

"From the first pitch of the game, they looked like they were hunting fastballs left over the plate," manager Terry Francona said. "There was some pretty good contact."

Matsuzaka remains in his regular spot in the rotation for now, but the team brass will go over his status on the Monday off-day. With John Smoltz set to join the group, anything is possible for Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka is certainly conscious of his tenuous grip on his spot.

"If I keep going like this, I have no right to be a part of this rotation," Matsuzaka said.

So far this year, Matsuzaka's run support has been excellent, and the games he's pitched have been close despite his struggles. Not tonight.

Matsuzaka's countryman, rookie Kenshin Kawakami, held the Red Sox to only one hit through the first five innings -- a Jason Bay double. Bay then did the only other real damage to Kawakami in the sixth, hitting a laser over the Sports Authority sign atop the Green Monster and far out of the park, with J.D. Drew on base, for the Sox' only runs.

"We stunk the last couple of nights. That happens. We didn't really do much of anything tonight. Thank God for Jason Bay otherwise we would have gotten no-hit. But it's alright, we'll come out tomorrow and play as hard as we can," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said.

The Braves scored again twice after Matsuxaka left, once off Masterson, and again off Takashi Saito in the eighth inning. That put a managable game out of reach, Bay said, and sapped any momentum gained by hte home run.

"For them to come out and get another run kind of squashed the momentum and really killed us," Bay said.

Sox ace Josh Beckett takes on former Red Sox Derek Lowe tomorrow night in the second game of this three-game set.

 Tags  Atlanta Braves Daisuke Matsuzaka Dan Barbarisi Jason Bay Justin Masterson

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