August 4, 2007
...
After Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run in Yankee Stadium and
Barry Bonds tied Hank Aaron with No. 755 in Petco Park , there were
some matters of a clear and present nature for the Sox and Daisuke
Matsuzaka to address. The Sox had lost nine straight times in Safeco
Field, and Matsuzaka, in three previous starts, had yet to vanquish
the team led by his most vaunted adversary, Ichiro. There was no
faulting the spirited way in which Matsuzaka and the Sox embraced the
task at hand, edging the Mariners, 4-3, before 46,313 on a gorgeous
night in the Pacific Northwest.
Matsuzaka
(13-8), who came out throwing 95-mile-per-hour BBs, struck out 10 for the third
time this season and was at his defiant best when the Mariners were at their
most threatening. The Sox, meanwhile, took their cue from an energized Manny
Ramirez, who sprinted from first to home on Jason Varitek's two-out, two-run
double in the fourth, and cracked an RBI double when the Sox scored twice more
in the sixth.
The Mariners
scored a run in the eighth with three straight two-out hits off Eric Gagne.
Jonathan Papelbon walked two in the ninth before Adrian Beltre popped to Varitek
in foul territory for his 25th save. History may not have been at stake, but
there was no shortage of drama.
Matsuzaka,
meanwhile, left little doubt about what the stakes meant to him when he pounded
his glove with gusto after the Sox turned a double play that took him out of a
first-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth. For Matsuzaka, that display of
emotion was akin to Papelbon pummeling his mitt in exultation, or Josh Beckett
letting out a rebel yell.
After the
first, when he disposed of Suzuki on a first-pitch ground ball to second and
struck out Jose Vidro and Jose Guillen, Matsuzaka seldom had a moment free of
anxiety. Beltre clubbed a 1-and-0 fastball into the right-center-field seats to
give the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the second. The Mariners loaded the bases in the
third, which featured a 10-pitch at-bat by Ichiro that ended with the Mariner
magician bouncing into a force play after fouling off four 3-and-2 pitches.
Matsuzaka escaped that one by striking out Guillen again and retiring Raul
Ibanez on a fly to left.
Vidro walked
with two out in the fifth. Matsuzaka responded by whiffing Guillen for the third
time. The punchouts were the least of Guillen's woes last night. In the Sox
sixth, which began with a double by Youkilis, Guillen gloved David Ortiz's
sinking liner on the short hop and came up throwing. Did he ever. Guillen, who
has possibly the strongest arm in the majors, threw it over the head of Beltre
at third and skipped on one hop into the box seats. Youkilis scored on the
error, and Ortiz wound up on third, from where he scored on Ramirez's double to
left-center.
Matsuzaka
hit Ibanez and walked Beltre to open the sixth, an aggravating proposition that
had Francona calling for Manny Delcarmen to warm up. Undeterred, Matsuzaka
whiffed Ben Broussard on three pitches, coaxed a popup out of Kenji Johjima, and
whiffed Jose Lopez on three pitches to end the inning.
There was
more activity in the Sox bullpen when Betancourt opened the seventh with his
second home run in two nights. This time, it was Hideki Okajima loosening.
That's all the exercise he got, though, as Matsuzaka retired Ichiro for a fourth
straight time, this time a grounder to short, his fourth straight roller, and
struck out Vidro and the hapless Guillen for a fourth time.
J.D. Drew
was back in the starting lineup after five games because of the surgery of his
17-month-old son, Jack. With the Mariners throwing another lefthander, Jarrod
Washburn, Drew was batting seventh and playing right field.
