Monday March 26 is usually just another day of spring training. Not for Red Sox fans such as myself. Daisuke Matsuzaka is taking the mound today for a his second-to-last start before his regular season-debut in
The weather here in
1:10: Why are the Sox players hacking away at the first and second pitch? OBP doesn’t mean anything? I seem to think otherwise. Also, Jason Varitek is colder than a block of ice in
1:14: There are more cameras behind the plate capturing Matsuzaka than at the Emmys and Grammys combined. Jesus.
1:16: To go along with every possible camera angle, Matsuzaka shows us all how to walk the leadoff hitter. Early on, Matsuzaka does not have good control. 3-0 to Adam Dunn. Green light? Yup. Luckily, just a fly ball to some guy named Scales playing in Manny’s spot. Ahh, spring training.
1:20: The language barrier rears its head as a pitch out turns into a changeup that rolls to the back stop. Why can’t we all just speak English and be happy?
1:23: Can ESPN stop with the behind the plate 100 feet high camera angle? I can’t see anything except the umpire and some specks on the field and mound. 1st inning over, one walk, one passed ball and thee outs later, D-Mat is….just a pitcher, so calm down Japanese media.
I love these ‘got an MLB mindset?’ commercials, with the fish guy swinging through a full grown salmon with some oversize version of a crow bar, spraying everyone with fishy entrails. Very creative I must say. It certainly makes me want to play MLB 2007.
1:29: I have seen a steady diet of ground balls to third by Dustin Pedroia this spring. Some hard hit balls, yes, but I need to see more of him before I trust he can hit a solid .270 - .290 in this league. As I say this, the sox go 1-2-3 again in quick, painless fashion. More line drives up the middle would make me feel a lot better. It seems as though he is trying to pull everything and trying too hard still. Can mike
John Sciambi and Rick Sutcliffe are our announcers du jour. Sciambi looks like he could be Mark McGuire’s long lost pudgy little brother while Rick Sutcliffe is doing a commendable job so far.
1:33: The announcers keep saying that they are surprised how Dice-K works differently than American pitchers. Well, this just in: he’s Japanese! Edwin Encarnacion just K’d on a filthy little curve ball. Nice to see.
Can ESPN please cut out the top-of-the-stadium camera angle? I think I’m going to be sick.
1:40: Another out, another K for Dice-K on old friend Alex Gonzalez. 93 mph fastball on the outside corner, and once again the announcers call Dice-K a breaking ball pitcher with a 95 mph fastball. Okaaaaay, this is news to me...
1:42: How do you record a catcher’s interference in the book? How do you say catcher’s interference in Japanese? Maybe Jason Varitek has it on his NFL playbook style wristband.
1:43: 44 pitches thru 2 innings? Not too good, even though Dice-K has not allowed a hit. I don’t think he has anyways. What the hell does catcher’s interference count as? Someone contact Alias for me. Apparently, it counts as an error. Oops. And I thought I knew baseball.
1:47: Here’s a tidbit of trivia for you ... who led the NL in strikeouts last season? How many guesses would it take for you to say Aaron Harang with 216?
1:48: That Scales guy just squirted a single through the left side for the first hit of the day. Dice-K looks pretty lost at the plate trying to get a bunt down. Bobby Livingston, the starter for the Reds did not get the memo about Matsuzaka not swinging as he walked him on five pitches.
1:58: Why am I worried about pitch counts when the man on the mound doesn’t ice his arm and plays 300 foot long toss? A man who once threw 17 consecutive innings as a high school pitcher and who throws 100 pitch bullpens like they are child’s play. Aside from that, he does have three walks so far, but it seems like he’s getting a tiny bit squeezed by the boys in blue. Call me a homer…..
2:05: Would Jason Varitek circa 2004 please stand up, please stand up….two K’s in 2 ugly at bats for ‘The Eighteenth Captain in Red Sox History!’ Did he really fall off the hitting plateau that far in so short a time period? He worries me coming into the season, even if he is healthy and “ready.”
2:13: Three straight breaking balls miss high after a three pitch strike out as Scott Hatterberg flies out on a 3-1 count to coco. D-Mat will not get away with 3-1 fastballs for a long time in this league. If he falls behind 3-1 consistently, the home run total will inflate and we won’t be talking about D-Mat the phenom, we’ll be talking about D-Mat the gopher ball generator.
2:21: 4 innings, 4 K’s, 4 walks, no hits and about 700 pitches thrown. According to Rick Sutcliffe, Dice-K is not happy with him self and keeps slapping his ball and his leg. Maybe ‘Cliffer is another one of those expert body-language readers like all the guys on The Big Show of WEEI.
2:27: “Cliffer and John Sciambi commend Bobby Livingston of his great outing so far, capped off by a strike out of the best power hitter in the sox line-up, Daisuke Matsuzaka. What a job indeed.
2:32: Matsuzaka has thrown 90 pitches and he’s not out of the fifth inning. Worrisome, yes, but he hasn’t given up a hit yet, which is not so worrisome. And he just struck out another Reds batter.
2:34: D-Mat must be intimidated by the massive size of Adam Dunn because he has trouble throwing strikes to him. Sort of. I wonder if he ever saw anyone that big in the Japanese premier league. D-Mat walks Dunn again, his fifth of the afternoon.
2:36: I think I just spotted the gyro ball! Sutcliffe said that Brandon Phillips swung and missed at a fastball, but he was ahead of it. Way ahead of it. How do you get ahead of a first pitch fastball that is usually around 92 – 95 mph? He struck him out with the fast ball, but without sounding like a whack job that supposedly got abducted by a UFO, that WAS the gyro ball. I’m now a believer. Formerly a skeptic, now a believer. Question: would Tito leave Dice-K in the game even with the 100 pitches because he has a spring training no-no going? Probably not, but its fun to ponder isn’t it?
2:46: We are now watching Matsuzaka run his poles across the warning track as John Sciambi cracks a joke that we are now running into the bottom of the sixth. I love spring training announcers.
A business man steals a base across a busy city street, finishes with a pop-up slide in front of a pudgy Asian man and that, is another ‘MLB 2007: The Show’ advertisement. God, I want to play that game wicked bad right now. I want to slide on the side walk and hit a fish with a crow bar.
2:50: Bottom six, Jonathan Papelbon is now pitching for the Sox. So much for the no-hitter. I could get used to this scenario: Matsuzaka for eight innings, Papelbon for one, as Papelbon K’s Junior Griffey for the first out. One can only dream.
2:54: Papelbon hangs a slider that is nothing but a long out to that Scales guy once again. Scales has gotten the most face time in this running journal, aside from Dice-K. Too bad he won’t make the opening day roster. Inning over, 1-2-3. One K and another no-hit inning in the books. Too bad the sox only have one more hit than the Reds do.
3:03: Griffey junior just wished Barry Bonds the best of luck in his chase for the all-time homerun record. Why do a huge percentage of major league hitters feel the need to back up Barry Bonds, even when they must know his head and feet have grown as much as his testicles have shrunk?
3:07: Craig Hansen enters the game as I hold my breath. He doesn’t have a drip of confidence in himself right now. Maybe a hair cut would do him some good because he looks like Johnny Damon circa 2005
3:11: Rick Sutcliffe doesn’t think the Red Sox can hang with the Yanks yet. He doesn’t feel like they have taken the necessary steps. What an Ass.
3:13: Hansen is officially in a jam. Base hit, broken bat single, hit by pitch and just one out. Another hit batter and Hansen is officially psyched out. I can’t imagine what’s going through his mind right now.
3:16: The wheels are officially off. Base on balls equals another run for the Reds. Why does the name Rick Ankiel come to mind and why am I all of the sudden cold?
3:20: Another walk and another run. U-g-l-y. Hansen is pulled, thankfully. His line: 2/3 IP, 2 hits, 2 HBP, 2 BB, 2 K, 5 ER and one case of insomnia for every sox fan who has faith in “The Kids.”
3:26: 5-0 Cincy in the eighth as the game is pretty much over and I could care less, but Kyle Snyder is pitching and he could grab a final spot in the Sox ‘pen, so I watch with vested interest….sort of. Inning over, 5-0
3:31: Could Rick Sutcliffe please mention again that he loves the way Matsuzaka “spins the baseball”? He’s only mentioned it about 17 times and to tell you the truth, it doesn’t take a Harvard scholar to know that every pitcher spins the ball. Have I mentioned that I love the spring training announcers on ESPN?
Game over, as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox 5-0 in a fun-to-watch spring training game. Daisuke Matsuzaka’s final line: 5 IP, 0 H, 5 BB, 6 K and about 100 pitches thrown.
The bottom line here is that Matsuzaka faced the opening day roster for the Reds and did not allow a hit over five innings. His control was not spectacular, but he obviously pitched well enough to keep a major league line-up subdued.
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