Now that is what you call a start

The Daisuke Era has now officially begun.

Wait, you say. What about the other seven starts? They didn't count?

Well, yeah, they counted, but there always seemed to be something attached. They were, you know, EVENTS!

First start. First home start. First start north of the border. First Yankee start. First Yankee Stadium start. Ichiro, Part II. Second start north of the border. Enough already. Can't the guy just play baseball?

Last night was simply a start, but, oh, what a start. Facing the Central Division-leading Tigers in a game whose significance was simply that it was a nice early-season confrontation between legitimate American League contenders, Daisuke Matsuzaka dominated. He threw a complete-game six-hitter as the Red Sox rolled to a 7-1 victory and oh, what a joy it is for some one discussing a major league baseball game in the year 2007 to be able to bang out those two words, and I'm sure you know which two.

One day after Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo had elevated 21st century managing to new heights of illogic by removing a pitcher the Red Sox could not touch after just 91 pitches, the last of which resulted in a mishandled pop fly in front of home plate, Terry Francona brought some common sense and perhaps even some romance back to baseball, sending Matsuzaka back to the mound in the ninth and allowing him to throw 124 pitches en route to his first (as well as the team's first) complete game.

And just why did the skipper decide to do it?

"I didn't see a reason to take him out. He wasn't giving up hits."

We apparently have lucked into a manager who is willing to go by feel every once in a while. What an amazing concept.

"He never came out of his delivery," Francona elaborated. "If you've thrown over 100 in seven innings, there's usually a reason. Then you have things to consider -- matchups maybe. But I saw no reason to take him out, whether the score was 3-1 or 7-1."

That allusion was to the four tack-on runs the Sox added in the eighth off reliever Bobby Seay, the key blow Julio Lugo's bases-loaded triple.

For the second straight game, the only blemish in an outstanding performance was a solo homer, this one by Curtis Granderson. Matsuzaka was otherwise in firm control, allowing no other baserunners to advance past second. And in the finest classical tradition of great pitchers, he got better as the game progressed, allowing just two hits after the fourth while recording 12 of his final 15 outs on ground balls.

One of those hits, by the way, was a muscle blooper to left off the bat of Gary Sheffield, a ninth-inning hit made possible only because Mr. Sheffield can bench press the Prudential building.

But the Tigers slugger stayed right where he was when Matsuzaka got Magglio Ordonez looking, retired Carlos Guillen on a harmless fly to center, and ended the game by inducing Pudge Rodriguez to bounce into a 5-4 force play, all this to the delight of 36,935 Fenway patrons who clearly were elated to see him trotting to the mound for the ninth.

"The ground ball outs," Matsuzaka said through his translator, "showed how well the defense was playing."

There was some truth to that. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia spent an inordinate amount of time on his belly, turning singles into outs, his personal highlight a seventh-inning stop on a Sean Casey smash, followed up by a throw from his knees. But Matsuzaka had more than his share of routine outs, too, as he never reached a three-ball count after the fifth.

Neither Francona nor Jason Varitek reacted with anything approaching giddiness, because it's now clear they believe even better things lie ahead for the expensive Red Sox acquisition.

"We've seen that before," said Francona. "That was a pretty solid outing against a pretty good lineup, a pretty good team."

"It was good," acknowledged Varitek. "Every time he takes the ball, it's different. He has so many pitches to work with."

The daily specials offered up by Chef Matsuzaka last evening were his fastball, his cutter, and his splitter.

"We were able to mix and match the other pitches in there as the game went on," said Varitek, who added that "it all comes off the location of his fastball. That's the biggest key. Whichever ones complement that we can utilize."

Matsuzaka has his own standards, of course, and he, too, was somewhat matter-of-fact in assessing his performance.

"I wouldn't say the stuff was the best I've ever had with the Red Sox so far, but as for the results, I'm definitely most happy about what happened today," he explained. "But at the same time, I don't want to settle and have to say that going forward the way I pitched today is the best I can pitch. I hope to improve continually."

He will, of course. One of these games, he's leaving the bullpen with all of his pitches in working order. That should be fun, especially since he is always A Man With A Plan.

"He has a tremendous mound IQ," declared Varitek. "We'll see more of that the second time around."

The Tigers won't have to worry about that until the Red Sox roll into Motown the weekend of July 6-7-8, but in the meantime they can report to any who ask that John Henry's Asian purchase is for real.

"I was impressed," said Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who had riled up some folks hereabouts by grousing that he hadn't paid much attention to the Daisuke phenomenon.

"To me, he was just another major league pitcher, and now I know he's a good one," Leyland said. "He has a good feel, and he and Varitek made some very good adjustments.

"Look, I knew with all that hype and with all the money they spent he had to be pretty good. I know it was a headline story. From what I saw tonight, he's good. He threw nine innings, and he knew what he was doing."

Daisuke Matsuzaka threw a complete-game six-hitter. I just had to pound out those words one more time.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.