Dice-K Earns First Victory Of 2009, Continues To Be Infuriating To Watch

By Erik Pesta
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff


Getting a paper cut and pouring lemon juice on it. Scraping my knuckles on a cheese grater. Cleaning my ears with an ice pick. What do these things have in common? These are all things I'd rather do than watch Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch a baseball game. There's the seemingly never ending string of three-ball counts, not to mention going full on one out of every three batters, and constantly throwing a ball in the dirt with runners on base. He walks around the mound after every pitch, rubbing his neck or wrist and then the ball. He refuses to throw strikes and challenge hitters he should be blowing away. These are all things that make the Dice-K experience positively maddening. He constantly dances through the rain drops, and I can't stand it. I just wish he would have a clean inning once in a while. You know, perhaps save a few of those bullets so he might be able to pitch into the sixth just once? This is NOT Japan anymore. He needs to stop acting like Francona is going to allow him to stay out there to throw 140 pitches. Throw strikes and let the defense make plays. You just might save the sanity of viewers everywhere.

Yes, he got the win, and his line looked half-way decent. I know he allowed just the one run. But to paraphrase what Eckersley said when Dice-K departed after five frustrating innings, "I watched, and it wasn't pretty". He was the beneficiary of three double plays, one of which was a base running blunder by Curtis Granderson; another was a line drive out in which the runner got stuck in no-man's land and doubled off of first. They weren't exactly text book. He allowed a ton of base runners, didn't have a single 1-2-3 inning, and walked the number eight and nine hitters to LEAD OFF the fifth. Are you kidding me? This tight-rope act is getting old, and it's going to come back to bite the Sox. In fact, it has already started, as evidenced by Matsuzaka's balloon-like 7.17 ERA.

Jason Bay broke a 1-1 tie in the third with his 16th homer of the year, a line drive into the left field seats that scored J.D. Drew and gave the Sox a 3-1 lead. Detroit's bullpen fell apart in the sixth, as Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis drove in runs for the Sox, with a walk and hit by pitch, respectively. That made the score 5-1, the way it would remain for duration of the contest. Drew, Jason Varitek, and Jacoby Ellsbury all had two hits apiece for Boston, with Ellsbury being robbed of a third hit by the official scorer on a grounder that was called an error. David Ortiz was 1-for-5 on the night, with three ugly strikeouts. A decision appears imminent from the Sox brass on just what to do with Ortiz. One thing is certain: they cannot allow this futility to continue. It is going to cost the Sox ballgames, in a division where little or no margin for error can be afforded. It's tough to say how many games Papi's struggles have cost them already, but you can bet it's a least a handful. Jonathan Papelbon also looked shaky once again, loading the bases but eventually using 35 pitches to strike out the side and preserve the victory.

The middle game of the three-game set takes place tonight. Josh Beckett (5-2, 4.60 ERA) faces Detroit's Armando Galarraga (3-5, 5.50 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 from Comerica Park.