WP: Matsuzaka (9-5)
LP: Maddux (6-4)
SV: Papelbon (17)
HRs: None
What's more embarrassing, this fourth inning fall or those hideous throwback unis!?
SUMMARY
After a shaky start (3 walks, 1 run in the first) Daisuke Matsuzaka settled down to pitch six satisfactory innings, and the Sox got to Greg Maddux for four hits and two runs in the fourth to account for the only runs in this well-played game between the top teams from each league.
HERO: Matsuzaka 6IP, 5H, 1ER, 5BB, 9K, 126P
Sixteen starts in and the mystery that is Daisuke Matsuzaka only continues to deepen. At times dominating, other times infuriating, Dice-K is starting to resemble the Japanese version of Julian Tavarez.
I can't believe I just said that.
GOAT: Maddux 6IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 2K, 91P
He's taking home this honor not so much due to his pitching, which was solid save for that rocky fourth inning, but for his barrel roll off the mound as his spike got stuck in the turf during a pitch to Papi in the 6th; as Remy said "that had to be embarrassing." Yep, it was.
RECAP:
Although it was by no means a work of art (3+ hours, 9 pitchers, 302 pitches, one unplanned pratfall), the first game ever at Petco Park between these two division leaders had enough entertainment & excitement to make me forget it ended at 1:16 am EST.
Probably because the way it began pumped enough adrenaline through my body to keep me alert for the next three hours.
What should have been a classic mano-a-mano pitcher's duel between a future Hall of Famer and a Japanese League legend returning to the site of his greatest international baseball moment may have the shiny box score facade of such a contest, but a closer look inside reveals a sloppy, erratic piece of abstract art.
Matsuzaka was the cause for the early agita when he walked the first three batters of the game, and most of the pitches weren't anywhere near the strike zone. Of his first 15 pitches, 11 were balls, and one was a wild pitch. Yikes.
But despite this horrific display of inability to find the strike zone, Dice began putting together parts of a brilliant outing by getting out of the three-on, no-out jam allowing just one run, on an RBI single by newly acquired nuisance, catcher Michael Barrett.
The line score for the inning: 1 hit, 3 walks, 1 wild pitch, 1 run, 1 strikeout
Amazingly following that ominous opening the only category to greatly increase on that line was the strikeout total, as Dice-K settled into a groove from there to the point that he retired 9 of the next 11 batters, five by strikeout.
It was a good thing he calmed down, too, because Mr. Maddux was dealing his usual hand of 'catch this if you can' mastery, setting down eight of the first 10 Sox batters and facing one over the minimum through three thanks to a double play.
Thankfully then came the fourth. As I reported in my preview, Maddux has been touched for 19 runs in his last 32.1 innings, and in the fourth it was evident how as Boston sent seven batters to the plate and almost every one of them hit the ball hard.
Pedroia got it started with a solid single to center, then Papi followed with a long, loud flyout to left. Then the next three batters-Manny, Youk & Tek- all ripped singles off Maddux, Youk's to tie the game and Tek's to knock in the go-ahead run, and even though Wily Mo grounded out and Lugo-fer fanned to end the frame, the damage was done as the final runs of the game had been scored.
Not that anyone knew that at the time because the way Dice-K was pitching it seemed like the whole thing was going to come crashing down like a house of cards at any moment. Matsuzaka allowed two men to reach in the fifth and sixth innings, yet somehow managed to avoid further damage by getting the big out when he needed it.
By the end of six both starters were gone and it was up to two of the best pens in the game to keep the game where it was and give their teams a chance to win it.
San Diego brought in former Sox prospect Cla Meredith, and the righty sidearmer allowed only an infield single to Coco Crisp (3-4) in his inning of work. Boston countered with lefty sidearmer Javier Lopez and then Manny Delcarmen, who combined for a scoreless seventh, then went to the heavy artillery for the final two frames.
Okajima was money in the 8th when he set down all three Padres he faced on just 10 pitches, two on strikeouts after Scott Linebrink had done the same in the top of the inning, which made it a 2-1 game heading into the ninth.
San Diego went with relative unknown Royce Ring instead of closer Trevor Hoffman, and all he did was ring up all three Sox batters on strikeouts, needing just 11 pitches to do so. Whew.
That left the game in the hands of Jonathan Papelbon, and the way he has been slamming the door lately it's almost as if he should have entered the game to Hoffman's infamous Hells Bells theme song.
After getting two quick outs Jose Cruz Jr slapped a single to right to break up the perfect save and ratchet up the tension another notch. But as a large, loud contingent of RSN cheered him on, Paps got Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez to strike out to end it, and Paps nearly broke Tek's mitt slamming the ball into it after the emotional & hard-fought victory.
Like I said, it wasn't pretty and it wasn't very offensive, but the game provided a number of memorable moments and impressive displays.
Too bad one of the most memorable is going to be Maddux' mound muff.
NOTES:
- Throw(it)back--the teams wore 'vintage' 1980s unis, Boston in morbid grey & black and San Diego in those infamous shit brown & Gulden's psychedelic specials. Nice.
- Coco still crispy--with three more hits tonight (plus a stolen base), Coco has now hit in 8 straight games and has lifted his average from .224 top .258 in the last ten games
- Drew who?--Coco batted leadoff tonight as Drew's latest malady-a strained quad-kept him out of the lineup despite a day and a half of rest. It's beginning to look like those preseason naysayers were right-the guy's brittle and slump-prone and NOT worth $70 million bucks
- Manny had another couple of hits (single, double) and is now up to .304, much more Manny-like. Now only if those homers & RBIs would go up
- Youk's RBI single ran his hit streak to six games, and he also made a couple of slick plays at third
- Speaking of third, Lowell (hand) sat for the thrid straight game, but did come in as a defensive replacement in the 8th
- Speaking of Youk's single, Maddux didn't appreciate a non-call that could have been strike three on Youk before the hit, and after he fanned Lugo to end the inning on a near identical pitch, Maddux waved his arms and shouted at home plate umpire Brian Knight on his way off the field
- Speaking of Lugo, he sucks. He went 0-4 and now is below Mendoza at a mind-numbing .198. For $36 million bucks. It's time for Tito to bat him below the pitcher for the rest of the series.
- Oki's scorless outing dropped his ERA to a fiber optic-thin 0.98; wow.
- Delcarmen has now pitched 2.2 hitless, scoreless innings since his most recent callup
- The free-swinging Fathers, who were second in the NL in strikouts coming into the series, fanned 13 more times, including three by leadoff man Marcus Giles
- Barrett the Brawler--the new arrival from the Cubs singled in his first two trips and also threw out Coco trying to steal. Sure, it's all good until he punches Peavy.
"Good game. Got outpitched."--Maddux
"I tried to get off to a gentle start today but that clearly didn't go so well. After getting into the jam I told myself that maybe one run would be permissible here, and that's how I approached that tight spot."--Matsuzaka
"Senior moment." --Maddux, referring to his elderly-like fall from grace in the sixth
RECORD: 47-25
AL EAST: Up 10.5 on NYY
STREAK: W-3
LAST 10: 7-3
UP NEXT: Sat @ SD 10EST
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