DAISUKE MATSUZAKA

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Dice-K aces his first Red Sox start

April 5, 2007 ... Daisuke Matsuzaka triumphantly lived up to his superman character, winning his first Sox game that counted, 4-1, over the Kansas City Royals before 23,170. Matsuzaka was hot even before he ignored 36-degree game-time temperatures and struck out 10 Royals, allowing just one run on six hits and a walk in seven innings.

There's no telling what an already galloping market will bear for Dice-K mania after the 26-year-old Japanese right-hander evoked memories of the first game Pedro Martinez pitched for the Sox nine years ago in Oakland (7 IP, 3 H, 11 K's), when Martinez was the same age.

Matsuzaka outdueled young Zack Greinke (7 innings, 8 hits, 2 runs), who is making an encouraging return from a depression that sidetracked his career last season at the tender age of 22. Matsuzaka was ahead of the game even before he went out to the mound at 2:22 p.m

Youkilis drew a one-out walk in the first and came around to score on Manny Ramirez's two-out double. The Sox made it 2-0 when Julio Lugo, the new leadoff man, manufactured a run in the fifth. Lugo doubled, stole third, and continued home when John Buck's throw sailed into left field.

DeJesus halved that lead, leading off the sixth with a home run over the right-field fence, connecting on a 91-mile-per-hour fastball. Esteban German then blooped a single in front of Coco Crisp in center, and trouble beckoned.

But Matsuzaka, who had struck out the side in the fourth and induced Tony Pena Jr. to tap out to the mound to end a first-and-third threat in the fifth, caught Mark Teahen looking at a called third strike, and battery mate Jason Varitek erased German attempting to steal on the full-count delivery. Emil Brown lined a double to left, and Sox manager Terry Francona had J.C. Romero warming up in the bullpen, but Matsuzaka put away overmatched rookie phenom Alex Gordon with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball on the black.

Matsuzaka whiffed the first two batters in the seventh - his 10 K's the most by a Sox rookie in his debut since Don Aase struck out 11 Brewers July 26, 1977 at Fenway Park.

Before Japanese fans who'd been watching Matsuzaka since 3:10 a.m. could begin to foment a potential revolt if the Sox bullpen failed to protect his slim lead, the Sox tacked on two more runs. Ortiz doubled, hustled to third on Ramirez's fly to center, and scored on a wild pitch. Crisp then exploited an error by third baseman Gordon by delivering an RBI single, his first hit of the season, to make it 4-1.

The scouting service Inside Edge, which is used by some big league clubs and charts all pitches in major league games, said 86 percent of the pitches Matsuzaka threw to right-handed hitters were either fastballs or sliders, while he threw a greater variety at left-handed hitters: fastballs, curveballs, sliders, only two changeups, and six splitters.

Jonathan Papelbon's closed the game for his first save.  His fastball registered as high as 96 miles per hour, a number that he did not touch in spring training when he was preparing to be a starter, an idea he said again yesterday he was happy to abandon.

Coco Crisp was hitless in his first nine at-bats of 2007, with four strikeouts - two yesterday - when he came to the plate with two on and two outs in the eighth inning. Imagine then, how he felt when he lined a run-scoring single off Royals reliever Joel Peralta for the final run of the day.

The first Sox batter in seven successive innings reached base, from the second to the eighth, all on base hits (four doubles, three singles). The Sox also scored in the first inning of all three games here.  Matsuzaka became the first Sox pitcher to win his big-league debut since Juan Pena beat the Angels May 8, 1999. The last big-league rookie to strike out 10 batters in his first game was Cincinnati's Aaron Harang, who struck out 10 Devil Rays May 25, 2002

Mike Lowell has doubled in each of the first three games.  Lowell had the first three-error game of his career. The last Sox third baseman to make three errors in a game was Butch Hobson, June 6, 1978, against Cleveland. The Sox, who set a major league record for fielding percentage last season, went through 2006 without making three errors in a game. They made four against the Yankees Sept. 9, 2005.

Jon Lester continues his feel-good comeback story. The lefthander, pitching for the Single A Greenville Drive, allowed just two hits in four innings in a 1-0 loss to the host Charleston (S.C.) River Dogs last night. Lester threw 54 pitches, 37 for strikes. He hit 96 miles per hour at one point, according to the park's scoreboard.

Also on the comeback trail, Mike Timlin (oblique) pitched a scoreless seventh in Pawtucket's 7-4 win over Charlotte in Fort Mill, S.C. He threw 17 pitches, 10 for strikes.