August 22, 2007
...
If, in an idle moment, Daisuke Matsuzaka happened to glance at the
Tropicana Field scoreboard and noticed that the Texas
Rangers had scored a record-setting 30 runs in Baltimore, he might
have had cause to wonder whether he'd gotten the wrong directions to
the American League when he left Japan. Matsuzaka could pitch a month
of Sundays or, to be more accurate, nearly two months of Red Sox
starts, before he'd see his team total that many runs on his behalf.
Dice-K gave
up just two hits in six innings, but one was a two-run home run to B.J. Upton in
the sixth inning, the difference in a 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who
vanquish the Red Sox only when Matsuzaka is pitching. The D-Rays have beaten the
Sox just three times in a dozen meetings, this season and all of their wins have
come against Matsuzaka. He's the only pitcher in the bigs to have lost three
times to the Devil Rays this season.
The Sox, who
had gained two games in two nights on the Yankees in the AL East and had climbed
26 games over .500 for the first time this season, would not know until the West
Coast scores rolled in whether they would lose ground to New York, which was
playing the Angels.
The Sox had
the potential tying run on base in each of the last three innings and the
potential winning run on base in the ninth, when David Ortiz walked with one out
and J.D. Drew singled with two outs off Devil Rays closer Al Reyes. But Reyes,
who in three previous outings against the Sox had a save, a loss, a blown save,
and a 7.36 ERA, retired Jason Varitek on a fly ball to left to end the game.
The Sox, who
loaded the bases in the third with no outs but scored just once, and had Ortiz
thrown out at the plate in the fifth, were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring
position and left 14 runners on base. There's been a tendency for that to happen
when Matsuzaka is pitching. In his last 11 starts dating to June 27, the Sox
have scored 29 runs while Dice-K has been in the game.
That
includes last night, when he clung to a 1-0 lead until the sixth, when he walked
Carlos Pena with one out and was taken deep by Upton, who hit his 18th home run
of the season one day after turning 23. Upton was batting cleanup for the first
time this season, Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon having flip-flopped him with
Pena. Upton was hitless in seven at-bats against Matsuzaka, with four whiffs and
a walk, before he drove a fastball into the right-field seats for an
opposite-field home run.
In 12 of his
last 16 starts, the Sox have scored two runs or fewer while Matsuzaka is in the
game. Twice in four days, a Sox starter has lost after giving up just two hits.
Sunday, it was Julian Tavarez, a 3-1 loser to the Angels. Last night, it was
Matsuzaka, who gave up a bloop single to Josh Wilson in the third and did not
allow a runner to reach third until the home run.
Playing
without Manny Ramirez, who was given the night off, the Sox scored fewer runs
for Matsuzaka than they lost bodies, with Dustin Pedroia and Eric Hinske
departing with injuries.
Pedroia was
hit in the left elbow by a pitch in the third inning. He stuck around to score
the team's only run off Tampa Bay starter Edwin Jackson on a double by Kevin
Youkilis, a walk to Ortiz, and a sacrifice fly by Mike Lowell. That rally
expired when Drew popped out on the first pitch and Varitek rolled out to third.
But by the
bottom of the inning, Alex Cora was at second base and Pedroia was getting
precautionary X-rays. Cora came to the plate with a chance to tie the game in
the eighth, after a two-out, ground-rule double by Julio Lugo. He hit a foul
ball with home run distance, then struck out. Pedroia's X-rays were negative,
left with only a nasty bruise. For a short time, he had no feeling in his hand.
In the
fourth, Hinske, who was playing left field in place of Ramirez, drew a walk,
stole second, and continued to third when the throw from surprised catcher Josh
Paul went into the outfield. Hinske was stranded when Lugo rolled to shortstop
and Cora lined to the track in left. And when play resumed in the bottom of the
inning, he, too, was gone, replaced by Bobby Kielty. Hinske had a cramp in his
right calf. Which is probably how Dice-K felt.
J.D. Drew's
homerless streak is now 48 games (162 at-bats, though it should be noted he a
homer taken away by umpires July 20 in Fenway Park); Coco Crisp, meanwhile, has
gone 40 games (155 at-bats) since his last home run. Drew has not homered off an
American League pitcher since April 22, when he hit one of four consecutive
blasts off Yankees rookie Chase Wright, who was demoted to the minors after the
game.
Mike Timlin
loaded the bases on two singles and a hit batsman in the seventh, but retired
Carlos Pena on a force play and struck out B.J. Upton. Timlin is now within
three of his 1,000th career appearance.
