Rotation gets adjustments

Dice-K pushed back in shuffle

By Gordon Edes and Michael Vega, Globe Staff  |  April 13, 2007

Because of yesterday's postponement, it's Dice-K does Toronto, plus not one, but two dates with the Yankees in the offing as well.

Daisuke Matsuzaka had been scheduled to pitch the Patriots Day matinee against the Angels. But manager Terry Francona has realigned his rotation.

Tim Wakefield, scheduled to pitch yesterday, will open a four-game series tonight against the Angels, and will be followed by Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, which keeps them on their regular turns.

The pitchers affected most by the changes are No. 5 starter Julian Tavarez and Matsuzaka. Tavarez, who was to have pitched tonight, draws the 10 a.m. start Monday. Matsuzaka will be pushed back to Tuesday against the Blue Jays.

Should that schedule hold, Matsuzaka would be on track to face the Yankees in Fenway Park April 22, then pitch against the Bombers again five days later in the Bronx, when the Sox open a three-game set.

The game in New York also projects to be Matsuzaka's first encounter with Yankee slugger Hideki Matsui, who is currently on the disabled list with a strained hamstring, which in Japan will be a story on par with this week's Dice-K-Ichiro Suzuki faceoff.

All of this is subject to change, Francona warned, especially in light of more bad weather in the offing for Sunday and Monday.

"Julian's the one who can be moved around a little bit if there's some weather," Francona said, "and keep everybody else on a day they can point to."

This will be the second consecutive start in which Matsuzaka will gain an extra day of rest -- five days between starts, which was the norm in Japan.

"This gives him an extra day," Francona said, though the more important goal, he said, was to try to achieve "some semblance of order" in the rotation.

Yesterday's postponement deprived fans of the chance to see Hall of Famer Bill Russell throw out the first pitch.

Russell, asked about observances scheduled Sunday to honor Jackie Robinson 60 years after he broke baseball's color line, said: "You may or may not know that I was a pallbearer at Jackie Robinson's funeral.

"The day after he died, Rachel Robinson called me to ask if I would be a pallbearer," Russell recalled. "When Jackie broke into baseball, I was in junior high school. To all of us, he was our hero, and here she was asking me to be one of his pallbearers."

This puzzled Russell.

"I remember saying, 'Can I ask why?' And she said, 'You were his favorite athlete,' " Russell said. "How did I get to be Jackie Robinson's favorite? He was a hero to all of us.

"Whenever I hear his name now, I'm very touched by that," he added.

"When I was growing up in the projects, one of the reasons he was such a hero to us was because he was regarded as a scholar and an athlete."

The Sox had been scheduled to wear green uniforms yesterday in honor of the late Red Auerbach and the Celtics. The NBA's most successful franchise today celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first NBA title. The team's 16 championship banners were briefly hung over the left-field Wall yesterday afternoon, but were quickly rolled up in the heavy rain and sleet . . . Best basketball player on the Sox? Kyle Snyder, the 6-foot-8-inch, 215-pound pitcher, said he just might be the guy. "I was a 2-guard on my high school team in Sarasota," he said. "I brought the ball up, scored about 12 points a game with eight rebounds. My dad played basketball at Rice -- he was on the last Rice team to win a conference championship. Driveway games? He would have killed me. He probably could still kill me. I was 6-7, the tallest guy on my team, but I only weighed 185 pounds." When he was with the Royals, Snyder said, players were surveyed about who they'd most like to meet. On Snyder's list: Russell. "Last year, during the Yankees series, he came into the clubhouse," Snyder said. "I shook his hand." He got the chance to do so again yesterday . . . Wily Mo Peña was washed out of his first start yesterday. J.D. Drew, who wasn't scheduled to play despite his eight-game hitting streak, got his day off, and goes back into the lineup tonight. Francona didn't know when Peña will get his shot . . . Gene Mato, one of Manny Ramírez's agents, said he believes the New Yorker profile on his client is scheduled to run in next week's issue. The writer, Mato said, had a five-minute conversation with Ramírez, but not an extensive interview. Ramírez is a big fan of Matsuzaka, Mato said. "Manny loves J.D. Drew," he said. "He told me Drew has one of the prettiest swings he's ever seen." . . . Devern Hansack had his second straight eye-opening start for Pawtucket, striking out 10 in five scoreless innings in a 5-3 win over Durham Wednesday. Hansack has now whiffed an International League-leading 20 batters in just 10 2/3 innings, while allowing just one earned run. Manny Delcarmen whiffed four in two scoreless innings to get his first win for the PawSox . . . Top prospect Jacoby Ellsbury is off to a great start with Double A Portland, with six hits in his first 14 at-bats (.429).