Dice-K completely overpowers
the Tigers
May 14, 2007
...
Daisuke
Matsuzaka was more than a handful for Leyland's defending American
League champions, who managed just six hits in Matsuzaka's first
complete game in the majors and succumbed to the Red Sox, 7-1, before
a crowd of 36,935 at Fenway Park. In crafting the first complete game
by a Sox hurler this season, Matsuzaka struck out five and walked
none, holding the Tigers scoreless over the last six innings.
This may
have been the first time a home crowd has experienced first-hand what all the
Dice-K Mania is about. In three previous starts on Yawkey Way, Matsuzaka was 1-1
with a 7.58 ERA. The last time he pitched here, he gave up five runs before
getting out of the first inning.
Julio
Lugo, whose ninth-inning chopper and sprint to the bag was the climactic act of
Sunday's history-bending comeback, broke open a tight game with a bases-loaded
triple in the eighth, then scored the fourth run of the inning on Kevin
Youkilis's base hit.
Matsuzaka gave up a leadoff single to the game's first batter, Curtis Granderson
(who advanced to second on a bobble by right fielder J.D. Drew), then set down
the next eight batters before Granderson hit a home run over the visitors'
bullpen with two out in the third.
He gave
up two singles in the fourth and a ground-rule double by Magglio Ordonez in the
sixth but had the Tigers beating the ball into the ground all night. Fifteen
Tigers rolled out, with second baseman Dustin Pedroia turning Sean Casey's bid
for a base hit into a dazzling out in the seventh, diving to his right and
throwing out Casey from his knees.
The Sox
did not batter Tigers starter Nate Robertson into submission, but they wore him
down with a series of grinding at-bats, most notably in the fourth, when Jason
Varitek hit a two-out double after a 10-pitch at-bat, and Coco Crisp singled him
home after a nine-pitch at-bat.
The Sox,
who had opened the scoring in the third with another two-out run, this one
created by a double by Youkilis and a single by David Ortiz, scored again in the
fifth on Ortiz's opposite-field double and Manny Ramirez's ground-ball single
off the field-box railing in left.
Robertson departed after the fifth, having thrown a hefty load of 115 pitches in
that span - without walking a single batter. The Sox had 11 hits off Robertson but stranded seven runners in the first five innings.
Nonetheless, they were able to win for the seventh time in eight games and 14th
time in 18 games, to maintain their status as the team with the best record
(26-11) in the majors. The fast start no doubt has kept the boo-birds away from
Drew, who struck out three times, rolled out to first, and was the only batter
in the Sox order not to hit safely. Seven Sox had two hits apiece: Lugo,
Youkilis, Ortiz, Mike Lowell, Varitek, Crisp, and Pedroia.
The
Tigers were a tired team - they didn't arrive from Minnesota until 5 a.m. - and
Leyland gave second baseman Placido Polanco, the team's second leading hitter
(.336), the night off. Matsuzaka only compounded the problem by making it look
like they were sleepwalking, with the exception of Granderson. Carlos Guillen
and Pudge Rodriguez had two-out singles in the fourth, but Matsuzaka induced
Sean Casey to roll out to Youkilis at first.
That was
the first of six straight ground-ball outs until Ordonez dumped his
opposite-field double on one hop over the low barrier in right field in the
sixth. But Guillen was called out on a half-swing at a pitch in the dirt, and
Matsuzaka set down the next six batters, all on ground balls.
While
the Sox rallied in the eighth, Jonathan Papelbon warmed up, but after Lugo's
triple he sat down. Matsuzaka had not gone more than seven innings in his
previous seven starts, but he did throw 38 complete games in his last three
seasons in Japan.
Varitek
started the eighth-inning rally by drawing a one-out walk off Bobby Seay, the
third Tigers pitcher. Crisp followed with a single to right and Pedroia with a
single to left. That brought up Lugo, who shot a ball into the left-center gap,
clearing the bases.
