Game Preview: Sox/Stanks Game 3

Phillip Hughes (0-1, 5.00) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-0, 2.82)
8:00 Fenway ESPN

If the rubber game of this initial Sox/Stanks series of 2008 is anything like the first two, expect to see plenty of solid pitching, timely hitting, poor weather and quickly played contests.

Then again if every game in the history of the rivalry went as expected we wouldn't have so many bleeping nicknames for past pinstriped players.

For two good reasons to expect the unexpected tonight look no further than the two starting pitchers who will get the call tonight. One one side you've got a highly-touted prospect making getting his initiation into the Rivalry, and on the other you've got a guy who has been more up & down than

And the outcome of the series may depend on which pitcher handles the heat of the battle better than the other.

For New York young righty Phillip Hughes will make his first start against Boston in his 16th career start. The 22-year-old has been on a fast track for major league success since the Stanks selected him with the 23rd pick in the 2004 draft, and now that washed up geezers like Randy Johnson and useless paraplegics like Carl Pavano are out of the picture, its Hughes' and fellow phenom Ian Kennedy's time to step up.

Whether he's ready to handle the intensity of Sox/Stanks, even this early in the season, remains to be seen, but the kids gotta get into the thick of it sometime.

Daisuke Matsuzaka may be sporting a 2-0 record and low ERA, but he has been anything but consistent in his second season in the majors after an illustrious career in Japan. Blessed with a variety of pitches and a deceptive delivery, his inability to throw strikes consistently, and pitch late into ballgames as he did in his homeland, has plagued him the entire time he's pitched for Boston.

Case in point: in the season opener in Japan, Dice K tossed 6.2 innings of 2-hit ball, and after shaking off some early jitters, settled down to hold the As to one run and pick up the win on his native soil. But last week against the Tigers he needed 108 pitches to get through 6.2 innings, walked 4 batters and seemed to be on the ropes consistently even though he shut Detroit out.

Thus is the mystery of Dice K. He was a hot commodity that Boston paid dearly for, but 15 wins last year and a, pardon the expression, dicey start this year is not what the Sox brass, or the Nation, had in mind for their $102 million dollar investment.

So let's just say Matsuzaka better get the best of the kid tonight, or the grumblings are going to start that Boston might have been better off investing in kids from the farm like Lester and Buchholz rather than investing in a .500 pitcher from a foreign land.

As for the speed of the game, it starts at 8:00, you've got two pitchers starting who will probably throw a lot of pitchers, Boston's middle relief has been atrocious, and the last two games have been played in under three hours.

In other words, see you 'round midnight.