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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM April 17, 2007 ... Despite another superb outing by Daisuke Matsuzaka, and a dazzling three-K inning by Japanese teammate Hideki Okajima, there would be no payoff of any kind for the Sox, who fell, 2-1, to the Blue Jays before a raucous crowd of 42,162 in the Rogers Centre. Matsuzaka, pitching for the first time against an opponent he had not laid eyes upon before facing, gave the Sox six innings in which he was all but untouchable except for one hiccup. It would prove to be a costly one, as Matsuzaka could not survive an infield roller, three walks, and a tough, potential double-play smash that shortstop Julio Lugo could not glove in the fourth inning, when the Blue Jays scored both of their runs. Despite 10 strikeouts in six innings, which enabled Matsuzaka to match another international sensation, Fernando Valenzuela, with 10 or more whiffs in two of his first three big-league starts (Fernando did it in 1981), Matsuzaka came up a loser for the second time this season. This, despite giving up just two runs to the major leagues' hottest-hitting team (.294, 52 extra-base hits) coming into last night. Wily Mo Pena rattled the windows of the Windows restaurant in dead center, territory reached rarely, most memorably by Jose Canseco when he was with Oakland, for his first homer of the season (and his first hit after seven outs), giving the Sox a 1-0 lead in the third. The Jays PR staff estimated Pena's homer at 442 feet. But that was the only run scored by a Sox lineup shut down by lefthander Gustavo Chacin and two relievers. Chacin, who followed Felix Hernandez's one-hitter to become the second Venezuelan in six days to outduel Matsuzaka, is fast becoming a Red Sox killer. He is 6-0 against them, the most wins by any active pitcher without a loss, and four of those wins came last season. Chacin did not walk a batter in 6 2/3 innings and allowed as many as two runners in only one inning, the second, when Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell singled, sandwiched around a called third strike to Kevin Youkilis. But Jason Varitek rolled into a double play to end that threat. Coco Crisp doubled with one out in the third, ending an 0-for-16 slump, but he was stranded when Chacin induced Ortiz to fly to center. Casey Janssen replaced Chacin after Varitek's two-out single in the seventh, and retired Pena on a harmless fly to right. J.D. Drew, pinch hitting for Dustin Pedroia, drew a leadoff walk off Janssen in the eighth, and was on the move when the count went full to Lugo. There was thus no retreat for Drew when Lugo lined to third, Jason Smith throwing across the diamond for the easy double play. Crisp kept the inning alive with his second hit of the night, a ground single up the middle. With B.J. Ryan out for at least six weeks, Gibbons called upon newly designated closer Jason Frasor to face the dangerous Ortiz. Frasor, who saved 17 games in 2004 and has had success against Ortiz (2 for 10), induced Big Papi to tap to the mound, then set down Ramirez, Youkilis, and Lowell in the ninth to end it. Gabe Kapler, who was willing to go to the low minors to learn how to manage, was caught by one of the game's technicalities, and it cost Jon Lester the third of his four scheduled rehabilitation appearances. Kapler's team, the Greenville Drive in the Single A South Atlantic League, played a game Saturday night that was suspended in the top of the second inning. When play resumed the next day, Kapler inserted Lester into the game in the fourth inning. But after Lester warmed up, umpires informed Kapler that Lester was not on the lineup card, which Kapler evidently had not updated from the day before, so Lester was not allowed to pitch. |
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