Game Preview: Sox @ Oakland GM2

Matsuzaka (7-3, 4.83) vs. DiNardo (1-2, 1.80)
10P EST Oakland Coliseum

Don't look now, but our streaking Sox are suddenly in a little bit of a s...okay, I'm not gonna say it, 'cause I don't want to be the one blamed for it...

... but SOME people might say our boys are in a little sl...

Let's put it this way, Boston has lost two in a row for the second time in less than a week and dropped 4 of its last 5 games, and if they were to lose tonight it would mark the first time all season they dropped three in a row.

You see what I'm getting at?

The man charged with saving this slu...from occurring is Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice has so far avoided any kind of losing streak himself, but at times he has been more erratic than Lindsay Lohan on crystal meth.

Matsuzaka had been costing along with a 6-game winning streak thanks to 8 runs/game of support and his eight different pitches, but the past two outings he has had one very bad inning come up and bite him in the ass.

On May 25th a five-run fifth nearly cost him the win at Texas, and last week against the Indians, a four-run sixth did cost him a win against the Tribe.

More disturbing than the 'one bad inning' issue is the startling numbers of hits and runs the control freak has allowed; in his past three outings, the Diceman has allowed 28 hits and 14 runs in 18 2/3 innings for an eye-popping 6.75 ERA.

Needless to say he's going to have to do better than that for all the time, money and P.R. the Sox have invested in him.

And with Lenny DiNardo, the young former Boston reliever turned Oakland starter, opposing him tonight and making just his 8th career start, now would be as good a time as any to get things turned around.

Because we wouldn't want this thing to turn into some kind of a slum...